Coca-Cola Amatil staff have engaged in dirty tactics against the fastest growing New Zealand beverage company.

Charlie's Group claims its design for its premium fresh fruit juice brand was copied by Coca-Cola Amatil, in the Goulburn Valley product fruit juice range.

Charlie's Group was forced to redesign the labels at a cost of $50,000 for the Australian market and delay their Australian product launch by six months.

Charlie's has increased its market share to 9% of the juice market in New Zealand, and Coca-Cola Amatil has struggled to gain significant momentum with an overall 16.6% stake. Whilst Charlies has been using quality budget marketing, Coca Cola has been using extravagant amounts of advertising dollars with disappointing results.

Stefan Lepionka, Charlie's co-founder with former All Black Marc Ellis, claims that Coca-Cola Amatil has also been removing price labels from Charlie's products on supermarket shelves.

"That is a major because it slows our sales, and takes two weeks to print new tickets. It means you can't get any more sales in that period."

Lepionka says Coca-Cola Amatil was trying to slow down its business. "The reality is we do have strong backing and we know we are right. But those guys are bullying us. They are just prats."