Popular gadget of 70s and 80s bubbles up again, remarketing itself as the greener alternative to fizzy drinks’ copious cans and bottles

For anyone growing up in the 70s and 80s having a SodaStream was the kitchen sink equivalent of a magic show with the gadget up there with Swap Shop and E.T. as a pop culture reference for the era. At that time the coveted “fizzy-drinks maker” was proudly displayed on 40% of British kitchen counters, attracting the kind of awed attention that a spiraliser could only dream off today.

It was a simpler time for consumers and today SodaStream faces stiffer competition for the nation’s attention as NutriBullet fruit and veg blenders bump up against Magimixes on crowded worktops.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Peak fizzy? The Kenwood-made SodaStream, circa 1978. Four out of 10 UK households owned a SodaStream in the 70s and 80s. Now it’s 1 in 100. Photograph: Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL via Getty Images

But SodaStream, which is listed on New York’s Nasdaq exchange, has seen its share price more than double in the past year after it started downplaying the “soda” that inspired its name, and repositioned itself as a green alternative to glugging cans of Coke and Pepsi.

“Europe is on fire [in sales terms] and the UK is part of that,” says the SodaStream chief executive, Daniel Birnbaum. “We have a way to go but we got to 40% [of British homes] before by just being fun.”

It certainly does have a way to go. At the moment only 1% of British households have one and 15% of owners never replace the gas refill, rendering it useless. But Birnbaum thinks the spending squeeze prompted by the Brexit blow to sterling will give its promise to make water “exciting” renewed appeal to browbeaten consumers.

“If the tap water is of high quality then why not transform tap water?” says Birnbaum with a zeal bordering on parody. “We’re the brand of the people ... we empower you to make your own beverage.”

In 2014, the Israeli company was targeted by pro-Palestinian activists for operating a factory in the West Bank. The row led Scarlett Johansson to quit her ambassador role with Oxfam after the charity criticised her for appearing in a SodaStream commercial.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scarlett Johansson in 2014. Photograph: REX

The company closed the plant in 2015 but Birnbaum says the decision was economic rather than political as it consolidated operations on one main site in Rahat, in Israel’s south, where it continues to employ Palestinians. This year it started printing an Israeli flag on its boxes accompanied by the caption: “This product is made by Arabs and Jews working side by side in peace and harmony.”

With Britons suffering the longest decline in their spending power since the 1970s there is growing evidence of shoppers changing their behaviour, such as buying more own brands to save precious cash. Last week Paula Nickolds, the boss of department store chain John Lewis, signalled the return of “the lipstick effect” – whereby a rise in sales of beauty products heralds a consumer squeeze as shoppers opt for small treats rather than big purchases.

Last year SodaStream, which has a market value of $1.3bn (£1bn), sold nearly 1m machines, up from 769,000 in 2015, with western Europe its biggest market. In the UK, most people use them to make sparkling water. Sales of refills are up 34% this year.

SodaStream claims “if you get busy with the fizzy” you can save hundreds of pounds a year but its sums are based on shoppers with a heroic thirst level paying top whack for premium brands.

To get started you can buy a machine and plastic bottles for £50 after which gas refills – which make 60 litres – cost £12.99. To make soft drinks you have to buy flavourings, increasing the cost from 21.6p a litre for sparkling water to 66p for a cola or lemonade.

Based on industry figures Britons drink more than four litres of soft drinks a week so if a household buys four litres of Highland Spring at 50p a litre, and the same amount of Coca-Cola at 80p a litre, the hardware would pay for itself in around five months.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The new Sodastream ad.

You could save more money by switching from brands to supermarket own-label drinks but the sodanomics might be more persuasive next year when a tax on high-calorie soft drinks kicks in with a top rate of 24p a litre.

There is also the promise of beer literally on tap this Christmas after SodaStream ran a successful overseas trial of “Blondie”, an alcoholic concentrate capable of turning tap water into a type of beer.

What a SodaStream does offer though is a route to cutting down on your consumption of single use plastic bottles if you have a fizzy drink habit. Figures obtained by the Guardian this month revealed that across the globe 1m plastic bottles are bought by consumers every minute – roughly 20,000 a second – a rate of consumption that has triggered an environmental crisis.

Dr Laura Foster, head of pollution at the Marine Conservation Society, says the amount of plastic ending up in landfill and oceans is “staggering”:

“We need to decrease the amount we use in our ever day life,” she said. “Reusing a refillable bottle is a really simple and straight forward way to reduce both your plastic and carbon footprint.”



SodaStream’s newest advertising campaign, which launched this week, stars The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik and highlights the evils of single use plastic bottles.

“It’s easy and economical to enjoy water and delicious sparkling drinks made from tap water at home and without having to pollute the planet,” says Birnbaum. But he would say that wouldn’t he?