Dive Brief:
- Not long after the Keurig Kold hit the market, SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum spoke with Bloomberg about the home carbonation industry, saying he welcomed competition from larger soda brands that draw attention to home carbonation as an alternative to soda, sales for which have declined for a decade.
- Birnbaum reaffirmed SodaStream's new branding and marketing message, which is that it is a healthy sparkling water maker rather than an at-home soda machine trying to compete head to head with major brands in the soda category. He called sparkling water "the future of beverage."
- When confronted with the company's decreasing sales in the U.S., Birnbaum emphasized that the U.S. comprises only 15% of SodaStream's sales and that sales are up in other regions.
Dive Insight:
"Competition is a good thing for us. It validates the home carbonation category. We've been alone at it for decades. In the meantime, the big soda brands have been declining for decades in the U.S. They need to do something differently, and the different is home carbonation," Birnbaum told Bloomberg.
He touted SodaStream's reusable bottle as more eco-friendly packaging and a cheaper price for making a 2-liter beverage.
Birnbaum promised a turnaround for SodaStream in the U.S. with its new U.S. president, John Sheppard, and new branding as a sparkling water producer after several quarters of falling revenue, including 29% in Q2 2015, 23% in Q1 2015, and 25% in Q4 2014.
"We behaved like a soda. And America doesn't want more soda. It's very obvious. But what we really are, our DNA is water. ... We were basically on the wrong strategy. We were on the soda strategy, but we are really a healthy sparkling waters business," said Birnbaum.