Why Pepsi paid both by a company to make sparkling water at home?

The multinational PepsiCo has saved the obstacles to be with the company SodaStream by 3.200 million dollars ($2.800 million euros), that is to say, 144 dollars (125 euros) per share. The shareholders of the company of soda israeli approved the merger with the north american giant with a 99% of votes in favour. An operation that, for legal reasons, will be made at the beginning of 2019 through a triple reverse merger, in which SodaStream will join a company 100% owned by PepsiCo created ad-hoc to conclude an agreement, according to sources close to the negotiations, the multinational company began designing three years ago. Just when its rival Coca-Cola embarked on the project Keurig: an attempt to manufacture its soft drinks home-through capsules, which was a commercial failure.

the covenant guarantees the permanence of SodaStream in Israel for 15 years and that the firm may continue to operate independently under the leadership of its current ceo, Daniel Birnbaum. “The agreement says a minimum of 15 years, but we expect to meet the production targets agreed to with PepsiCo and the plant to stay here forever. We are growing at a rate of 30% per annum and we hope to grow more,” says Birnbaum. According to media israeli, the operation will be reported to the executive a bonus of 30 million, which could rise to 80 million if it is to meet the expectations of the benefit set for the next three years.

Bonus

there will Also be a reward for the workers. “It is a challenge. We will have to spend to manufacture a half-million bottles gasifier per month to produce 1.7 million,” says Keider Yusef, supervisor of Quality of SodaStream factory in Rahat, south of Israel. The agreement with PepsiCo provides that each employee of SodaStream (2.592 in total, of whom 1,875 are in Israel) will receive about 4,000 euros bonus, depending on their age.

controversy with Scarlett Johansson

SodaStream has had to reinvent itself in 2014, when the actress Scarlett Johansson gave him his image, and supporters of the campaign of Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) reported that the group was located in the jewish settlement of Maale Adumim in the palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. The scandal ended with SodaStream suffering in Bag and with the actress giving up the title of ambassador of the NGO Oxfam. The company moved to the south of Israel, but its director-general denies that it was because of those pressures. “We were growing so much and we unify in a center,” says, “it had to do with the BDS”.

The signature is present in 39 countries, among them Spain, where its acceptance has been very uneven. Although its origins date back to 1903, and from the creation of the israeli State, in 1948, was implemented in Great Britain, it was not until 1991, when it was founded as we know it today. Its international expansion led it to open new markets in Australia and nordic countries such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, where 25% of the business. The united States came in 2011, but, due to their presence in large stores like Wallmart or Target and sell online on sites such as Amazon, today cup 50% of their sales.

The figures for the last year show the best results from SodaStream to date. Their revenues increased by 31% compared to 2016 and posted a net profit of 82%: 23 million Klasbahis euros.

why is one of the leading companies of soft drinks in the world pay a lot, for some exorbitant, for a traditional company that is committed to be the consumers that manufacture the soft drinks home-made, from tap water? Some experts suggested that with the purchase of SodaStream, PepsiCo was intended to eliminate a competitor of its main business. “That is absurd. PepsiCo bet for our project because the future is green,” says Birnbaum. “Paying more than 3,000 million figure is exorbitant to stop the growth of a future competitor. Without a doubt, it is a strategic investment of PepsiCo in a time dominated by considerations of health”, says the economist, israeli Manuel Trachtenberg. Coincides with Birnbaum that the purchase is a bet by the values “healthy”, that are on the rise, at the time that the soft drinks sugar-sweetened traditional are becoming more and more reviled.

For the economist, it is an “economic operation very interesting because it is something different.” In Israel it is not unusual to see acquisitions of small start-ups (such as Waze, purchased by Google for 1,000 million euros, or Mobileye, acquired by more than 14,000 million by Intel), but is that a traditional company to reach a market value so high. “They are entrepreneurs. Able to demonstrate that even in traditional industries can innovate,” explains Trachtenberg. In SodaStream that innovation comes through the mechanization of the factory in which process the metal where they make their bottles gasifier, the customization of the reusable containers and advocating for the environment and a healthier alternative to sugar-sweetened soft drinks traditional.

The flagship product of SodaStream is a compressed air machine that allows the user to carbonatar the tap water in reusable bottles and add flavor. To do this, the firm also manufactures and distributes more than 100 syrups flavorings, which, he says, contain up to two thirds less sugar than most popular drinks. To the advantages of not having to haul the containers from the supermarket to home, the company adds that it is a “green value”, as an alternative to the bottled drinks in plastic, because that helps reduce waste, as well as the pollution generated by the transportation of these beverages. “The microplásticos are a global health problem. Our customers need to know that, when choosing SodaStream, in addition to stop producing plastic waste will contribute to have a cleaner planet,” says Birnbaum.

His environmental activism cost him a lawsuit with other global giants of the bottled water, including Coca-Cola, Danone, and Nestlé Spadel, who denounced at SodaStream before the european court on the grounds that its advertising campaigns were “humiliating for those who consume plastic”. An argument rejected by the Court of Appeals of Brussels, which ruled in his favor, on the grounds that the information on the harmful effects of plastic “is relevant to society”. The last battle in his war against the plastic ripped off a month ago with the launch in the honduran Caribbean from the so-called Holy Turtle (turtle sacred), a device giant marine to collect the plastic waste discharges at sea.