| 19 October |
Business Staying Power: One Example |
Someone has well said that the two most important rules of business are: 1) Stay in business; and, 2) Don’t forget rule number one. You cannot serve your market if your business fails. A good way to learn lessons about staying in business is to study those who have done it.
SodaStream was established in 1903. Giles Gilby invented a carbonation system; it made fizzy water from standard water, and was originally marketed to the upper classes. In the 1920s, new flavours were introduced. These included cherry ciderette and sarsaparilla. It enjoyed widespread success in the 1970s and 80s, becoming a big hit in countries such as the UK, Germany and Australia.
The company underwent numerous changes in ownership, at one point even being part of the Cadbury Schweppes empire. 1998 was the year the company changed hands for the final time when purchased by Soda Club, which at that time was the biggest supplier of SodaStream to Israel. SodaStream remained the name of the brand after Soda Club’s unsuccessful bid to change the name to Soda-Club.
More recently Soda Club sought to spur new interest in the SodaStream brand. SodaStream was relaunched along with a new machine and many more new flavours, concentrating on being a healthy alternative to fizzy, sugar-rich drinks such as Coca Cola and Pepsi, and focused on health and diet issues so prevalent in this day and age.
Fundamentally, the SodaStream product is a home carbonation kit, which allows you to change water into sparkling water, as well as allowing you to add low-calorie flavours such as cola and orange. A large assortment of calorie-free flavours to flavour sparkling water to great taste is sold at allfreightfree.com.
Here’s how the SodaStream machine works: it forces co2 into a water-filled bottle suitable for pressurising. The water is turned into sparkling (carbonated) water by the co2. This process (dissolving co2) is known as carbonation. The carbonated water can then be drunk on its own as sparkling water, or mixed with flavours to create tasty, healthy treats. Once the co2 canisters have been used up they can be sent back to Soda-Club who recycle the canisters by refilling them with co2 then sending them back out.
As far as the actual health and diet benefits gained from drinking SodaStream, it is claimed that all their flavours are completely sugar-free and contain a maximum of 2 calories per 100ml; no doubt this is good news for any parent concerned about a child’s diet.
The SodaStream machine adds only co2 to the water, meaning it does not have the added sugar that some bottled sparkling water contains, so there is little difference between it and normal water.
SodaStream have made much of their environmental and health credentials, going so far as to claim that each litre bottle of SodaStream saves three aluminum cans. Which in turn means that over 3 years, a family of four could slash their soft-drink-related packaging usage by over 90%. This is an arresting claim, one that in this environmentally conscious age will stand them in good stead. It is clear that Sodastream has developed into a realistic alternative to the big players in the soft drink world.
Each year thousands of new businesses are started, and thousands of others are closed. By analyzing a business history like SodaStream’s we can identify qualities and strategies that might help our own businesses survive.
