Up until the late 1980s, Pepsi wouldn't touch Israel. It entered the Israeli market when Pizza Hut opened its first branch in the Jewish state in 1990, offering Pepsi to Israeli customers for the very first time. When the corporation exhausted its competition with Coca-Cola in the U.S. market, it began to compete for the European market, and then Israel.
This history may be unpleasant to hear at a time like this. After all, PepsiCo just announced it would purchase Israeli home soda-machine manufacturer SodaStream for $3.2 billion. But this information is important mainly because it is still relevant.
For years, SodaStream has been the target of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement. The firm's answer to the provocations against it was to return fire. SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum's response was to stamp the Israeli flag and a "Made in Israel" logo on every product offered by the company. He traveled the world, even going to the United Nations, to speak out against BDS. That is why Pepsi's acquisition of SodaStream – beyond all the other repercussions – is a victory for sanity.
SodaStream has been through quite a lot since it was first founded in England in 1903. In 1998, it was purchased by Israeli company Soda-Club. It dealt with its last crisis just four years ago, but now that's history. Birnbaum's efforts to rebrand have proven themselves more effective than anyone ever expected. Since its rebranding, SodaStream has grown from your average beverage company to a green, or environmentally friendly, company. That is how SodaStream has been marketed and that is how the brand is perceived around the world.
Soda water is the preferred beverage of adults in Europe and the U.S.
In Western countries, where people are increasingly conscious of the environment, SodaStream offers the perfect solution – it requires no disposable bottles or for water to be transported from one place to another, and in the end, people who use the SodaStream are really drinking water.
Pepsi needs this rebranding, and if it comes with SodaStream's amazing profit margins, all the better. Like PepsiCo, SodaStream is a low tech company. It employs some 2,200 people, mainly at its manufacturing plant in the Negev. Pepsi's announcement that operations would remain and even expand in Israel is particularly encouraging.
Just like other successful high-tech firms, Pepsi's SodaStream is also in effect an Israeli public relations company, and with this acquisition, the company has already recorded its first victory on this front.
