How Four Companies Turned Resource Control Into Market Monopolies
In the business world, timing is valuable—but control is everything.
While many companies chase innovation and marketing brilliance, the savviest players have discovered another route to market dominance: owning the supply chain.
Whether it's plastic pumps or memory chips, the most genius business strategies haven’t focused on making better products—they’ve focused on ensuring that competitors can’t make any products at all.
The Strategic Blueprint
When David Protein acquired EPG’s sole producer and shut out the competition, he wasn’t inventing a new tactic—he was following in the footsteps of some of the smartest supply chain plays in history.
Here are three other legendary cases where supply control turned into market control:
The Pump Heist: Softsoap vs. Big Soap (1980)
Imagine launching a new product—liquid soap—while giants like Procter & Gamble loom large.
Robert Taylor’s answer?
Buy every plastic pump in the U.S.—100 million units for $12 million.
While corporate behemoths scrambled for overseas suppliers, Softsoap rocketed to $25 million in sales in just six months.
By the time competitors caught up, Taylor had made Softsoap a household name.
The result? In 1987, Colgate-Palmolive bought Softsoap for $61 million, turning that bold pump move into a 5X return.
The Billion-Dollar Bet by Apple (2005)
Steve Jobs saw that the booming iPod demand had one Achilles’ heel: flash memory.
His move?
Apple prepaid $1.25 billion to secure flash memory from every major supplier—Samsung, Toshiba, Intel, Micron, and Hynix—locking up global supply through 2010.
This wasn’t just component purchasing—it was future-proofing.
As rivals struggled to find chips, Apple produced 30 million iPods, solidifying its dominance. At the time, it was the largest prepayment in consumer electronics history.
Battery Hog: Elon Musk with Tesla (2004–2020s)
Elon Musk didn’t just want battery supply—he wanted battery supremacy.
Tesla teamed up with Panasonic and invested billions to build the Gigafactory, creating an exclusive, vertically integrated supply line.
At one point, this single Nevada plant produced more lithium-ion batteries than the rest of the world combined.
While traditional automakers hunted for suppliers, Tesla had locked down Panasonic’s best tech—giving it a five-year EV head start.
The Fat Replacer Monopoly by David Protein (2024)
EPG is a revolutionary plant-based fat substitute—same flavor, fewer calories. When David Protein took over Epogee, the only company producing EPG, he didn’t just buy a supplier.
He bought control over an entire category.
Suddenly, rival snack brands were hit with canceled shipments. Protein had already stockpiled two years’ worth of inventory, and now, he held the keys to "healthy indulgence" snacks.
An antitrust case is underway—but litigation takes time. Until it’s resolved, they control the ingredient, and by extension, the industry.
Conclusion
These four stories reveal a powerful truth: market domination isn’t always about the best product—it’s often about the smartest control of resources.
Whether it’s pumps, chips, batteries, or niche ingredients, owning critical supply chains can turn bold moves into billion-dollar wins.
David Protein’s recent play shows this strategy is still going strong in 2024—proving that sometimes, the best way to win is to make sure your rivals can’t even compete.
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