Royal Crown, better known as RC cola, has been quite the name changer during its 100-year history. The company was born a ginger ale brewery in 1905 by a soda pop-loving pharmacist named Claude Hatcher. After a brief stint as Union Bottling Works, Royal Crown returned to its original name in 1933. In 1959, the bottler took the name Royal Crown Cola, only to switch it to Royal Crown Companies in 1978. Corporate titan Victor Posner purchased RC Cola and its Arby's subsidiary in 1984 under his powerhouse holding company, DWG. The company stuck with the DWG label for almost a decade, until Posner's empire began to disintegrate under the weight of lawsuits and allegations of corporate corruption. After a federal judge banned Posner from running a public company, Nelson Peltz and Peter May made a successful bid for DWG in 1993. They promptly changed its name, for the second time, to Triarc.

Triarc, which is based in New York, has been an industry constant for most of its life. The RC brand, for example, is typically the No. 5 best-selling soft drink, controlling about 1 percent of the market share. In addition to RC, Triarc has control of brands like Snapple, Mistic, Stewart's, T.J. Cinnamons (a classic-style bakery), Pasta Connection and, of course, Arby's restaurants.

Trying for steady state

Can the return of Snapple and its wacky advertisements and the retooling of Royal Crown's (RC Cola) product lineup boost each beverage's flagging sales? Holding company Triarc thinks so. Triarc, a branded consumer products company, has long banked on new brand popularity to battle old-timers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Yet Triarc now has a tremendous line-up of top-name brands. Ever optimistic, the company sold its Graniteville textile business, a dyes and specialty chemicals subsidiary, C.H. Patick & Co., Inc., and its interest in the propane company National Propane Partners, L.P. Triarc has since focused its energy on beverages and foods. The company is no finicky eater when it comes to the latter. Triarc Restaurant Group's operations are conducted through Arby's, Inc., an expansive franchise specializing in "slow-roasted meat." CEO Nelson Peltz and COO Peter May own a majority of Triarc stock.

Snapping up Snapple

Snapple was a steal for Triarc. The company gobbled up the trendy beverage maker for $300 million, only a few years after Quaker Oats bought the brand for an excessive $1.7 billion. Under Quaker's ownership, Snapple sales had plummeted from 70 million cases a year to 45 million. So far, Snapple has been a smash hit for Triarc. With new products like Whipper Snapple, a fruit smoothie, sales are expected to continue to rise.

Private ownership?

In October of 1998, CEO Peltz and COO May proposed taking private ownership of Snapple and Arby's. They offered $18 a share, or $418 million in cash. Analysts believed that the full acquisition of Triarc would have enabled Peltz and May to repackage the company and to take public those portions that could get a higher valuation on Wall Street. Analysts also said they weren't surprised by Peltz and May's strategy, calling the men "two proteges of junk-bond trader Michael Milken with a history of buying assets on the cheap." After six months of wading through the proposal, the offer was dropped in March 1999.

Saying good-bye to "The Best Stuff on Earth"