Coke moves secret formula to its own vault

On the 125th anniversary of its inception, iconic aerated drink maker Coca-Cola Co has shifted its secret formula to the World of Coca-Cola Museum at its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, and put it on 'public display'.

For the first time in history, the vault containing the secret formula for Coca-Cola is visible to the public

Visitors will not however get to study the formula – all that is on display is a metal box purportedly containing the formula.

A few days ago, a senior company official was shown on video placing the box inside a five-foot-high safe several and locking it. Visitors are now escorted through a room full of pictures and historical information about the founding of the company and the secret formula. That display leads into a cylindrical room, where images of glasses filling with Coca-Cola splash across the walls before lights come on and reveal a giant, metal-encased vault with a keypad and a hand-imprint scanner.

Coca-Cola is the world's largest soft drink maker, and the market leader in the US as well as India. In both countries, it outsells its nearest global competitor Pepsico.

Its legendary secret formula had been in a vault at SunTrust Bank Inc in Atlanta since 1925. Coca-Cola said the decision to move the formula from SunTrust had nothing to with the bank's decision to gradually sell off its long-held stake in Coca-Cola.

The bank, which provided underwriting services to Coca-Cola when it went public in 1919 and received some of Coca-Cola's first publicly traded stock, at one time held more than 48 million Coca-Cola shares.