About a decade ago, the company that owned Walkers (Lays US) found that there was a snack that was taking a 20% share of the snack market. It was outselling all of its brands except ready salted crisps (potato chips US). In the case of Doritos, it was outselling them 3 to 1.
So they had to do something: they had to eliminate it from the market either by purchase or by outselling it.
The snack is called Wotsits and was then owed by Golden Wonder who, unsurprisigly, refused to sell their biggest selling product to a rival.
Therefore Walkers introduced an American product called Cheetos to push Wtsits off the top spot. It didn’t work because i site of the best efforts, Cheetos didn’t sell well. Wotsits fans only ever bught one packet and retailers just didn’t re-order them.
Now the company who owns Walkers also own Golden Wonder at a huge cost and Wotsits are now apparently made by Walkers.
It’s the same with beverages: we already have lemonade manufacturers such as Schweppes and “R Whytes” (owned by Britvic). Since the original Moutain Dew along with 7 Up are essentially lemonades they will never perform so well against such an established brand in the UK (R Whyte, founded in 1845). Moreover, our lemonade is more or less pure lemonade whereas both Mountain Dew and 7 Up look as if they were made in a chemistry lab rather than a kitchen and Brits don’t like that.
Mountain Dew is sold in the UK, but any foreigner would see the British mountain dew as “a bit off” this is because the ingredients are different. The American version contains substances that are banned in the UK and therefore the British Mountain Dew is a British recipe and is made in Britain.
That being said certain types of Mountain Dew is not available in the UK. Mountain Dew “Code Red” and “Voltage” are not widely available in the UK (However their are some specialist shops that sell them).
The reason why the recipe is changed and the reason why the other forms are not widely available come down to the respective consumer safety agency, which in this case is the Food Standards Agency, and also down to Mountain Dew.
In the UK our safety agency generally take the view of – “If you can’t prove its safe, you can’t sell it” which is why the recipe is changed.
In the US however the policy generally – “If there is no evidence its harmful, its safe to sell”
This is why many different beverages and foods have to be adapted.
The reason there is no adaptation for the “Code red” and “Voltage” beverage is on the basis that an adaptation would only serve the UK population and as such would likely be too costly.
