How did Beech-Nut Corporation trash their brand with this
scandal?
Beech-Nut was found guilty of as well as plead guilty to 215
counts of violations of Federal Food and drug laws. The fine for this violation cost the company
$2 million in fines. The company has
"sold millions of bottles of ''apple juice'' that they knew to contain little or no apple juice at all - only sugars, water, flavoring and coloring. The consumers of this bogus product were babies." The normal process for creating apple juice starts with the use of apples. Beech-Nut consumers were enraged and a lot of parent were disgusted with this issue. One prosecutor of the case, Thomas H. Roche, had summed up Beech-Nut's behavior as ''a classic picture of corporate greed and irresponsibility.'' The corporate executive on
Beech-Nut at the time was Niels Hoyvald who was sentenced to a year and a day
in jail and a $100,000 fine. Beech-Nut
advertised that the juice was nutritious, 100% natural, with no sugars added, which
was a lie. Parents and babies love apple
juice because of the flavor and the fact that it is easy for babies to
digest. The reason behind Beech-Nut
taking this shortcut in making their apple juice was their company's effort to save money. "The savings would never amount to much more than $250,000 a year, out of a $50 million-plus manufacturing budget". Out of $50 million in profits they only saved
$250,000. At the time, Beech-Nut was a widely used brand and people are very
familiar with it. This lost the lots of
followers and customers as well as angry parents who were giving their babies
this “non-apple juice”. This was a disgrace and the company has been bought out by several different companies in attempts to save the "good name" of the brand. Resuscitation of the company has not yet happened and it struggles to keep its head above water.
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