Soda wars
October 3, 2009
At a press conference Friday in Hamburg, Bionade founder and CEO Peter Kowalsky announced that Radeberger would take 70 percent stake in the company, enlarging a smaller stake it already held and buying out the carbonated water company Schindel Group's 51 percent share.
The organic soda was first introduced onto the market in 1997 and has built up a cult following across Germany with flavors such as ginger-orange and elderberries.
Kowalsky and his brother Stephen will hold onto the remainder of the company and continue to run Bionade's operations from the family brewery in Bavaria where they founded the firm.
Kowalsky was sweet on the sour soda's future with Radeberger.
"We don't want Bionade to remain some kind of trendy soda in Germany," Kowlasky told reporters.
First, Germany. Next, the world.
Under its new ownership, Bionade plans to expand internationally, first in other German-speaking countries and then further afield.
The Radeberger Group owns various breweries around Germany including Radeberger, Berliner Kindl, Jever and Clausthaler. Its parent company, Oetker, is one of Germany's largest conglomerates with over 9 billion euros in 2008 revenue. The company's range of products spans from baking soda to frozen pizza to shipping and insurance.
Although Oetker is based in Bielefeld, Bionade will hold onto its Bavarian headquarters in the town of Ostheim.
Under the control of the Schindel Group since 2004, Bionade has surged onto the German market and is one of the four most popular German soft drink brands. But Schindel sold Bionade because the company's plans to expand abroad would put it in competition with soda giants like Coca-Cola and Carlsberg and Schindel was too small to compete, said Kowalsky.
The company does not expect immediate success on foreign markets, despite positive test marketing across Europe, and is planning a five-year international expansion strategy.
Last year, Bionade sold 150 million bottles of its organic sodas, generating 40 million euros in sales and employing about 170 workers. A price increase this year led to a 20 to 25 percent fall in sales, Kowalsky said, though he expected revenues to remain stable.
bn/AP/DPA/AFP/Reuters
Editor: Andreas Illmer