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 meet the needs of your market if your business fails. A good way to learn lessons about staying in business is to study those who have successfully done so.
SodaStream was established in 1903. Invented by Giles Gilby, it was a carbonation system which made standard water into fizzy water, and was originally sold to the upper classes. New flavours were introduced in the 1920s. 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, at that time Israel’s biggest supplier of SodaStream. SodaStream remained the name of the brand after Soda Club’s unsuccessful bid to rename the brand from SodaStream to Soda-Club.
More recently Soda Club sought to change the SodaStream brand. SodaStream was relaunched along with a new machine and many more new flavours, concentrating on marketing 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.
The SodaStream product is essentially 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.
What the SodaStream machine does is force 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 referred to 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.
Regarding 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; this is, assuredly, good news for every 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; consequently, there is little discernable difference from normal water.
SodaStream have made much of their environmental and health credentials, even going so far as to claim that every one litre bottle of SodaStream made saves three aluminum cans. So, over a 3 year span, a family of four could slash their soft-drink-related packaging usage by over 90%. This is a popular claim, one that should stand them in good stead in this environmentally conscious age. It is clear that Sodastream has developed into a realistic alternative to the big players in the soft drink world.
This year thousands of new businesses will be started, and thousands of others will be closed. By analyzing a business like SodaStream we can identify qualities and strategies that might help our own businesses survive.
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