Charles George Guth

Charles Godfrey Guth (June 3, 1877 – May 24, 1948) was an American businessman, who, as executive of the Loft Candy Company, purchased the trademark and the syrup recipe of the twice-bankrupt Pepsi-Cola Company. He was President of Loft Candy Company from 1930 to 1935 and President of Pepsi-Cola Company from 1931 to 1939.

Biography He was born on June 3, 1877, in Baltimore, Maryland to Emil Guth of Dresden, Germany.

Murder of George A. Murphy While living in Baltimore during September 1913, Guth was arrested for murdering George A. Murphy, an African American man who was employed as his chauffeur. The NAACP-published magazine The Crisis reported on the incident several times, and noted that Guth "killed his colored chauffeur in a dispute which arose because Guth didn't want his milk delivered at the same time as his chauffeur's." In Guth's version of events, he fired the man, and Murphy allegedly responded by trying to attack him with an axe. Guth responded by shooting Murphy dead. The NAACP noted in its annual newsletter that the "not guilty" verdict in Guth's case was "a woeful miscarriage of justice".

Loft Candy Company In April, 1929, Charles Guth became Vice-President of the Loft Candy Company when Loft bought Mavis Candies, of which Guth was president at the time. In 1930, he was elected president at a stockholder conference where the police had to intervene to ensure it did not become a riot.

Pepsi-Cola Charles Guth owned a family business, Grace Company, which made syrups for soft drinks in a plant in Baltimore, Maryland. Then, he became interested in the Pepsi-Cola Company after Coca-Cola refused to give him concessions on the sale of the cola in his drugstore. He stopped selling Coke and started selling Pepsi. When Pepsi-Cola Company went bankrupt (for the second time) on June 8, 1931, he bought the Pepsi-Cola Co. from Roy Megargel, for the price of $10,500.

However, Guth did not have any success with the company and almost declared bankruptcy himself. In a desperate bid, Guth approached Coca-Cola and offered to sell them the company but officials from Coca-Cola declined his offer, not even placing a bid.

After Loft chemists changed the recipe "more to his liking", Guth negotiated a contract to bottle Pepsi in a six ounce bottle. After the product still failed to become a success, he introduced Pepsi in a twelve-ounce format but with the same price as the six ounce drink. By 1933, Pepsi-Cola was sold in 313 stores in the United States and in 83 other countries. He was also ordered to give Loft $475,000.

In American corporation law, the Guth rule now stipulates that no representative of a company should take a business opportunity for himself if the corporation is doing well enough financially to carry out the action, if the corporation is interested in it or if it is reasonably expected that the opportunity will do well and the opportunity is in the company's line of business.

Noxie-Kola After leaving Pepsi he worked for Noxie-Kola.

Death He died on May 24, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland.