Creating the Fizz
Has Everyone Buzzing
OBH Nordica SodaMaster Single
By Joanne Friedrick
When it comes to selecting a blender,
mixer or toaster, retailers can offer their
customers a fairly wide range of brands
and options. But in the in-home soda-making category, there is only one major
player and a few others looking to make
a mark.
Soda Stream International, based in
Israel, has a firm hold on the category
and continues to build its brand with new
configurations of the home soda maker,
along with assorted flavors, bottles and
exchangeable CO2 cartridges.
In the company’s 2011 fiscal year, it sold
2. 7 million units, which was up 41 percent
over the previous year. In addition, Soda
Stream sold 18. 9 million flavor units and
13. 3 million CO2 cartridges. Soda Stream
products are sold in 42 countries and
through 9,500 retail outlets in the United
States alone.
Having started with a focus on the specialty kitchenware market, working
with independents and chains such as
Williams-Sonoma and Sur La Table, Soda
Stream now sells through major mass
retailers, including Kmart, Target, Staples
and Best Buy, as well as department
stores such as Macy’s, JCPenney, Sears
and Bloomingdale’s.
In April, Soda Stream debuted SodaCaps
– single-serve flavor capsules that work
in a fashion similar to the individual K-cups
for Keurig coffee makers. Also being shown
at the Salone del Mobile in Milan, Italy,
was the newest soda maker, a sleeker,
high-design unit called Source. Both will
be available for sale in the fourth quarter.
Even with its expanded competition,
however, kitchenware retailers who sell
Soda Stream products find their popularity has remained steady. And with some
mass retailers not participating in the
cartridge exchange program, that gives
independent stores an edge when selling
some of the value-added products.
Sherwin Westover, store manager at
Kiss The Cook in Burlington, Vt., says his
store has been carrying Soda Stream for
about three years, stocking one of the
lower-priced models called the Jet.
“It’s a simple, smaller model,” says
Westover, but it was appealing because it
works with both the 60-liter and 130-liter
carbonators. In addition, Kiss The Cook
carries a large selection of the flavorings,
he says, ranging from the regular flavors
to the natural and My Water varieties.
Although sales of the actual soda makers
have slowed a bit, Westover says business
