Several years ago I paid around $14000 for three Red Bull vending machines, 1000 cans of Red Bull, liscense to market the product and represent Red Bull as a vendor. I found the information on the Franchise.com website, and believed to be entering the ground floor of an excellent business opportunity. The program was through a proxy company called Creative Concepts of America (CCA), and they were Red Bull North America's (RBNA) only authorized distributor of vending products. RBNA was aware of all claims made by CCA and even endorsed them when I called to verify their claims.
After receiving my machines I soon found it impossible to enter the market. The one machine I did manage to place did not perform anywhere close to the marketing claims. Soon Red Bull pulled the plug on CCA, and all of its hard working vendors. RBNA left us with no options either. When we attempted to sell our now useless machines on E-Bay we were told that we were not liscened to use the Red Bull name! It didn't matter, the market was flooded with machines.
RBNA initiated a buyback program. I agreed to participate in the RBNA buyback program, and was relieved of my 3 machines yesterday. I also received a check for $1700/ea. The representative was polite, helpful, and completely ignorant of the CCA and RBNA situation. He is from a local beverage distributor near Fayetteville, NC.
Prior to this I had been contacted by a man from the distributor. This man and I had been playing phone tag for a short time. I was eating lunch when I noticed a man across from me who had the beverage company logo on his shirt. I asked if he was my contact for the Red Bull purchase program. He responded that he was, and that the female with him was a Red Bull employee. He was not aware of the CCA situation, however she was. She attempted to honor Red Bull for "doing the right thing." I politely disagreed, and excused myself from the conversation. This took place on Ft. Bragg, NC. The two were there to coordinate plans to place Red Bull vending machines on the post. As an active service member I could not do this, however what disturbed me was that it would seem that this will be done with my (our) machines. Red Bull will help their distributors enter the market, but turned their back on us. They are buying machines at a P discount, then using their influence with the very distributors who prevented us from entering the market, to establish their vending campaign.
For those of you that had problems locating your machines you already know that all prime locations already have a contractual obligation with a beverage distribution company. This obligation effectively blocked us, the small business, from realistically entering the market. Red Bull is now capitalizing on the situation which they helped to create.
I received $5100 from RBNA I want the remainder of what I paid for the machines ($3300/ea) or $4800.
I don't think my desires are unreasonable. I am active duty military and live the Red Bull "high energy" lifestyle. Thanks Red Bull.
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