Who owns Sodastream?

SodaStream has provided customers around the world with the ability to make their own carbonated soda drinks within their homes.

At this point in time, they have multiple flavor options to select from, and the devices to create the soda have become increasingly more affordable.

As the company has gained rapid popularity, ever since its introduction of Daniel Birnbaum as the company’s CEO, Sodastream products have infiltrated the homes of customers at large.

Sure enough, one begins to wonder about the details of this once subtle company, and how exactly they came to be.

One simple question would be:

You can also read more about the PepsiCo acquisition of SodaStream here.

Who knew sodastream company could be so interesting?

The History Of soda stream company

Who owns soda stream?

Surprisingly enough, SodaStream’s initial start-up story dates way back to 1903, when a man from London named Guy Hugh Gilbey created an ‘apparatus for aerating liquids’. He is the actual sodastream owner.

Hilbey had been a part-owner of the London-based gin distillery company, W&A Gilbey LTD when he began to shift his focus onto creating flavored concentrates.

At the time, the aerated liquid drinks created by Gilbey, along with the flavored concentrates, were a luxury known only to upper class royal households within Britain.

Gilbey had specifically kept the product as a high-class commodity.

Sodastream parent company

SodaStream UK Commercial Summer of 1980

By the time the mid-’80s had rolled around, SodaStream had experienced multiple changes in upper management, and eventually became a subsidiary of Cadbury Schweppes.

Major changes to the company and their public presence would begin to fall in place after SodaStream was purchased in 1998 by Soda-Club, an Israel based company.

The company began to focus on healthier drinks and different means of operation.

In 2007, SodaStream was bought by Fortissimo Capital, an Israeli private equity firm, who then asked Daniel Birnbaum to step up as their CEO becoming the soda stream owner.

With this purchase and the appointment of Daniel Birnbaum as the CEO, the company had been, for lack of a better term, defibrillated.

The new purchase and new management were able to breathe some life into the company.

With Birnbaum as the new CEO, the company had essentially rebranded itself as a fizzy water company that offered healthier soda alternatives than those sold by big soda brands. By the year 2010, SodaStream had begun listing shares on the NASDAQ.

Some years later, PepsiCo would purchase SodaStream for a very hefty amount of money …

The biggest purchase in the company’s history came from PepsiCo, which had paid a whopping $3.2 billion in cash for the company back in the summer of 2018.

CNBC coverage: Pepsico to buy Sodastream for $3.2 billion

The valuation of $3.2 billion comes out to around $144 per share, as well.

PepsiCo’s dive into other soft-drink and water-based beverages are further highlighted by their line of Bubly sparkling water, as well as their bottled water LIFEWTR.

SodaStream, since its initiative to become healthier and more environmentally friendly with the purchase from Soda-Club in 1998, has tried hard to be an ethical company.

The biggest point they have tried to make over the course of the past twenty years is how an at-home soda and seltzer maker can save families from wasting thousands upon thousands of plastic bottles each every few years.

Activists saw the Israeli occupation as an infringement upon the rights of Palestinians living in these areas.

CEO Daniel Birnbaum would go on to defend his company, stating that they provide Palestanians with “respectable employment opportunities and an appropriate salary and benefits”.

He points out that the factories are apolitical, and do not take certain sides on most matters.

The controversy forced SodaStream to close down its factory in Ma’ale Adumim and move to a new one in Lehavim.

Ultimately, the controversy did not end up having much of an impact on the company or its sales, and things returned to normal soon after.

So, depending on which angle you look at them from, SodaStream can certainly be viewed as an ethical company, especially in terms of environmental sustainability.

Back in 1965, the company PepsiCo had been created through the merger of Frito-Lay and the Pepsi-Cola Company.

Since then, PepsiCo has been able to expand to unprecedented areas, and take control of companies that, to this day, many people are still not aware that PepsiCo owns.

This assumption is true, seeing that no other company owns PepsiCo. PepsiCo is run by itself and extends its operations to various other companies in the world.

As you can clearly see by this point, PepsiCo owns and is in control of a ton of companies that make various products we are all familiar with today.

The flavors used are a culmination of the great flavors PepsiCo has supplied for the past 50+ years.

SodaStream started out as a very promising company, but over the latter half of the 20th century, its brand and image began to fall off, mostly due to a lack of product innovation.

Now, customers around the world are enjoying soda and fizzy drinks or seltzer beverages from beverage companies, with great flavors, made right in the comfort of their homes.

Have a look at my SodaStream Kit bag for ideas on how to max some amazing flavors at home