So the highly respected British company Innocent has sold a £30 million stake to Coca-Cola. Often upheld over the last 10 years as a flagship of entrepreneurism in the UK, Innocent promoted itself as a non-corporate, eco-friendly and value driven company. No better demonstrated than its send up of naming its headquarters ‘Fruit Towers.’ The company has enamoured consumers with ethical and moral ways of doing business. But has it sold out?

The motivation; to raise funds to help them expand into Europe. Its not the first time though. Pret a Manger and McDonalds, The Body Shop to L’Oreal, Ben & Jerrys to Unilever and Green and Blacks to Cadbury’s.

Naturally an optimist, on these occasions, I can’t help feeling sceptical. The very things that made these bright start up companies special seems to dispel once a conglomerate gets involved. Its hard to see how genuine and sincere values cannot be compromised with a company that has other motivations and does business so differently.

Surely it’s a contradiction, Coca-Cola often criticised for its unhealthy product, Innocent the complete opposite! When I look at Coca-Cola I don’t think ‘ethics,’ I don’t think ‘family,’ I don’t think ‘natural.’ It leads to the question, can these big companies really sustain these smaller, highly innovative companies under its wing retaining the original values?

The original three founders have said nothing will really change as they  ”continue to lead and run the company.” That may be so, if a little naive, only time will tell.