Feuds
We’re not the first, we won’t be the last and we certainly won’t be the most famous.
Eduardo Saverin and mark Zuckerberg. Adolf and Rudolf Dassler. Mukesh and Anil Ambani.
And Tom and Jerry, of course. We’re being realistic, not disloyal, in suggesting that it’s highly unlikely that Simon Bushel and Archibald Peck will ever be as famous - or notorious - in commercial circles as Saverin and Zuckerberg, et al, but we’re sad to report the two founders of our cider business have had a major falling-out.
It seems as though Simon Bushel, disappointed at the slower-than-expected growth of the company, is convinced that the only way to meet the commercial ambitions they had when they set out is to introduce fruit-flavoured ciders into the portfolio. Archie Peck disagrees; he wants no part in becoming a smaller, more inefficient and sub-scale version of Rekorderlig or Kopperberg and would rather remain true to founding principles, even if that means remaining small, inefficient and sub-scale.
And then, like little boys, they started squabbling about the name of the company.
our new name
This isn’t what it seems. Archie was quite happy for his PECK to play second fiddle to Simon’s BUSHEL. “Bushel and Peck” is more sonorous and mellifluous than “Peck and Bushel”, it rolls off the tongue better. It’s more famous, thanks to the song in Guys and Dolls, sung by Doris Day, as well as many later iterations (we like Dan Zanes’ cheery, youthful version and also the sweet simplicity of Erica Lorenzo’s take on the song). “Bushel and Peck” also makes more sense from a weights and measures point of view; a bushel is 4 times bigger than a peck and big things generally take precedence, in the school playground and elsewhere. Pounds and Ounces. Feet and Inches. Shillings and Pence. Bushel and Peck.
The last we heard from Simon Bushel, as he stormed off in an outrageous huff, was that if he couldn’t have his way we couldn’t have his name at the top of the masthead. What a child. We’ll stay with apples and change the name so, as from this morning, …