This is the story of how Jan Jozef Leonard Moulen fought against the big guys in and attempt to save his business.
The original add for the Noca Nola drink. Notice the company phone number "15" in the bottom right. Voerendaal was small and phones were a luxury! Image source.
Leo Moulen, as he was commonly known, was born in 1882 in a small Dutch village called Voerendaal. Leo was born in a large family and the son of an alcohol and gambling addict. When he was 25 he started his own business by producing sparkling fruit flavoured drinks that he sold in the surroundings of Voerendaal. The drink that he sold gained popularity especially with the local miners in the region. In this southern part of the Netherlands, coal mining was an important industry. Leo therefore named the drink "Glück auf Perle" referring to *Glück auf *, the common way miners would great each other in those day.
Leo enjoys prosperity in his business the years after. In the meantime Leo was the first car owner in the village and got married and became the father of ten children. While things go well, one day an acquaintance who just came back from the United Stated informed Leo about a bevarage company that was selling their drinks in a unique type of bottle. The company, you guessed it, was Coca Cola.
Leo with his wife and 10 children image source.
The Moulen family owning the first car in town image source.
While at first Leo didn't think of Coca-Cola and their special bottles too much. But somehow Leo couldn't get it out of his head until one day he decided to register the name Noca Nola and started shipping his own fruit drink in bottles similar to those Coca Cola was using.
While this further pushes Leo's business forward Coca-Cola caught wind of it as they entered the Dutch market in 1928. Due to the local laws, Coca Cola was not allowed to do any business in 50 kilometer radius around Voerendaal, where Noca-Nola was registered. Due to the shape of the Netherlands, this meant no business in more or less the whole province of Limburg.
While Coca-Cola took their loss at first, a new bottle design of the Noca Nola bottle caused some debate. Leo Moulen decided in 1936 to change their bottles to be more or less a copy of the well-known Coca-Cola bottles. This, understandably, to the dislike of Coca-Cola.
Looks familiar? image source.
After some negotiations, Coca-Cola bought the brand name Noca Nola for 10000 guilders (approximately 120000 Euros nowadays). From that day on Leo's drinks were sold under the name Komol. The company remained in business under this name until it closed in 2005 after dropping demands and popularity of the drink. Traces of the company, however, are still found in and around Voerendaal. The building which served as the house and factory of Leo Moulen are still standing. And the man flexing his arm, which was part of the logo of Noca-Nola and later Komol, still remain above the door of the building:
The Noca Nola / Komol factory location as it stands today. Notice the word Komol on the right part of the building still showing. Image source.
This close up of the front door still shows the logo of the lemonade factory! Image source.
As the company doesn't exist anymore, I will never get the chance to taste the once so popular drink. It's sad, but also beautiful in a way. Nothing is eternal. And so isn't Noca Nola.
While Noca Nola or its descendent Komol didn't survive through time while Coca Cola does, this story is still inspiring. David didn't beat Goliath, but at least he fought! There are plenty of such stories around worth sharing. Let's find some more to share here on Hive!