Marks and Spencer Holdings PLC (LON:MKS) has accused German hard discounter Aldi of ripping off its iconic Colin the Caterpillar cake.
Marks & Spencer is claiming in the High Court that Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar is a knock-off of Colin the Caterpillar, a cake that M&S has been selling in its shops since 2004.
“We want to protect Colin, Connie and our reputation for freshness, quality, innovation and value,” a spokesman for Marks & Spencer said, explaining why it wants Aldi to stop selling the Cuthbert range or anything similar to it in the future.
Would watch a six part Netflix documentary series on the Colin the Caterpillar M&S and Aldi lawsuit.
— Scott Bryan (@scottygb) April 15, 2021
As people on social media have not been slow to point out, Aldi is not the only supermarket chain to sell a cake that looks (and sounds) suspiciously like Colin the Caterpillar.
Sainsbury’s with its Wiggles offering at least seems to have made a half-hearted attempt to hide its heritage while Waitrose, whose version is called Cecil, does not seem to have fully understood this alliteration lark.
Tesco has a similar cake called Curly and Asda one called Clyde.
No supermarket as yet has had the gumption to rebake it as Bart the Butterfly once the cake has gone past its sell-by date.
Want to feel old?
This is Colin the Caterpillar today. pic.twitter.com/sHcaWvQCu3
— Public_Pegg (@PeggPublic) April 15, 2021