BSD
The Bigio family are the owners of 10,000 square meters in Heliopolis since the early 20's. Raphael Nessim Bigio, father of Josias and grandfather of Raphael, purchased that land with official registered deeds. In the 30's Coca-Cola established its first bottling in a building rented from the Bigios on that same property. On that land and in adjacent building, Raphael Nessim Bigio along with
his son Josias, established a can manufacturing plant: R.N. Coca-Cola then became a customer of the Bigio family, who produced serving trays and coolers with the Coca-Cola logo. The Bigio family helped and assisted Coca-Cola in promoting its brand, through its production. In 1955 Josias Bigio built a second plant owned by His wife, Bahia Bigio, hi son Raphael Bigio & his daughter Salma Bigio : The National Crown Cork Company, to supply the Coca-Cola Company with its bottle caps. The Bigios were granted two manufacturing licenses By Coca-Cola Atlanta and were therefore licensees of Coca-Cola. Raphael Bigio , joined his father in managing the NCC. He personally dealt with the Coca-Cola Head office in Cairo. The factory building of the NCC is the personal property of Bahia Bigio. In the early 60's the rogue government of Nasser expropriated the Bigios because they were Jews. Josias Bigio was arrested by the government of Nasser and suffered a major heart attack. After over 60 years of earnest labor and efforts the Bigios, were forced to escape Egypt and were classified as U.N. France grated an asylum to the Bigios. In 1979 The government of Sadat returned the title of the real estate property to the Bigios in conformity to a law passed by the National Assembly of Egypt. Misr Insurance a state entity , receiver of almost all the expropriated real estate assets of the Egyptian Jewry , refused to return the property to the Bigios. Following the new policy of the government of Mubarak to privatize the public sector, Coca-Cola acquired in In 1963 the ENBC, The Bigio factories which had been nationalized and merged with the Egyptian Coca-Cola Bottler under the name El Nasr Bottling Company (ENBC) were offered for sale by the government of Egypt. The Coca-Cola Company, as alleged by them, acquired the ENBC ; through a subsidiary and other partners. The Coca-cola Company then announced the formation of The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Egypt in its SEC filing of its 10K report for 1964, following the privatization of the ENBC. Prior the final steps of that acquisition by Coca-Cola , Raphael Bigio who found out about that event , put on notice by telephone and in writing The Coca_cola Comapny at the highest echelon : not to acquire the ENBC , before his family's fair share is paid to them and reminding Coca-Cola of the long standing relationship between his family and the Coca-Cola Company. After two years of peaceful negotiations undertaken by the Bigios , with Coca-Cola Atlanta; the Bigios were simply brushed off. As a last resort for a measure of justice, the Bigios filed a lawsuit in New York against the Coca-Cola Company seeking compensations and punitive damages.
