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The Soda Exchange Franchise Opportunity

What could be simpler?

Everyone needs water every day. That is a perfect demand searching for fulfillment with something tastier and more refreshing than tap water.

The concept for The Soda Exchange was birthed during the height of the global pandemic of 2020-21 when several trends became obvious.

  • The first was the exploding success of home delivery with its convenience and “contactless” safety for customers.
  • The second was the “green” movement towards recycling, reduction of plastic consumption, and protection of the environment.  
  • The third is the adoption of SodaStream™ carbonation systems in the home as an alternative to sugary drinks across North America and around the world. 

The downside to the SodaStream™ system has been the high cost and inconvenience of replacing and exchanging empty CO2 canisters at Big Box retailers. This created the Soda Exchange opportunity.

We Deliver and Exchange for Half the Price of Retailers

The Soda Exchange service is a “no brainer” for our customers who appreciate the dollar savings and the convenience of home delivery at half the price of the Big Box Stores. Our overheads are extremely low, which makes us competitive and profitable even at the low prices we charge.

The secret to our competitive business model is the building up of densely organized routes for our delivery drivers to minimize wasted driving, and maximize the profit potential of each day. There are no expensive storefront leases or overheads to pay for before getting into the profit zone. 

Equipment requirements are minimal, and franchisees benefit from the sophisticated website and mobile app integration that keeps the Soda Exchange business running smoothly in the palm of your hand on your smart phone.

All you need to succeed is a strong entrepreneurial spirit, a drive to succeed, and the desire to be your own boss!

The Benefits of Owning a SodaExchange Franchise

  • You are in business for yourself but not by yourself.
  • We give you the tools you need to succeed.
  • Set your own hours and create a schedule that works for you, instead of waiting around for customers to walk in the door.
  • Low Entry Cost
  • Low Operating Costs
  • Work Your Own Hours
  • Home Office and Mobile
  • Clients Become Repeat Customers
  • All Advertising and Creatives Supplied
  • Comprehensive Franchisee Location Specific Ecommerce Website 
  • Mobile Delivery App for Drivers
  • Short Term Initial Training
  • No employees (optional)
  • No buildings to lease
  • All you need to succeed is a strong entrepreneurial spirit, a drive to succeed, and the desire to be your own boss!

 

The Soda Stream Success Story in Canada

SodaStream™, which is now owned by PepsiCo after a US$3.2 billion acquisition was completed late 2017, says that Canada has become its fourth-largest market globally, with six per cent of Canadian households using SodaStream machines.

The new plant in Mississauga will refill the carbon dioxide canisters that those machines use to turn tap water into carbonated water. Before the new plant began operations last month, when customers purchased new canisters in store their empty ones were sent to a refilling station in New Jersey.

The move comes as SodaStream transitions from being a rebellious upstart to a subsidiary of a massive soda empire.

From its beginnings, the company has billed itself as a healthier, more environmentally friendly alternative to bottled water and carbonated beverages, often taking jabs at established players, in its advertising.

Canada has become a major market, with sales growing by nearly 50 per cent in 2018. Since 2010, SodaStream says it has sold 1.5 million machines here. It’s the fourth-largest market for the machines in the world, behind Germany, the U.S. and France.

Indeed, demand for sparkling water in Canada has been “exploding,” said Robert Carter, an industry adviser with NPD Group. “More consumers are just moving away from the alcohol category, they’re moving away from the carbonated soft drink category,” he said.

The new plant in Mississauga signals the company’s increased interest in the Canadian market, SodaStream said.

“Our headquarters looked at us and said, ‘OK, now that you’re big enough, you need your own gas-filling centre,’” Rena Nickerson, SodaStream’s general manager for Canada, said, adding that the company plans to increase its advertising in Canada by more than 30 per cent in 2019.

The plan, she said, is to drastically increase SodaStream’s household penetration.

“If 18.5 per cent is where Sweden’s at,” Nickerson said, “I at least want to get there.”

*Financial Post –  March 05, 2019

The SodaExchange only works with the genuine SodaStream™ Cartridges that customers know and love.

Run Your Business from Your iPhone

The SodaExchange magic happens in the integration of the website, reporting apps and delivery routing apps that automate the entire delivery process from the time a customer places an order, to the routing of the deliveries, to the automated emails and text messages that keep the customer informed every step of the way. The website can even integrate with your accounting program for more detailed business tracking and reports.

A Simple Business

From the beginning, The Soda Exchange was designed to be a simple business. It’s simplicity is what allows owners to expand rapidly, and without a lot of growing pains. 

  • Filling and delivering the cartridges can be learned in a day or two. Total capital investment in equipment and tools is less than $1000.
  • The website and mobile app provided by The Soda Exchange to each franchisee is about $5000 to custom build.
  • The Franchise Fee depends on the territory size and desirability. Smaller area franchise fees start at $5000 and up.
  • The franchisee pays all their own own advertising costs, but has free access to all the ad creatives produced and developed by The Soda Exchange for social media marketing. 
  • Profit margins, after all costs and overheads, are typically in the 50% range depending on the stage of the business and owner discretion for advertising budget.
  • Supplier relationships benefit franchisees with the power of accounts at a national, but locally based supplier of beverage grade CO2.
  • Smart Cars dramatically reduce fuel costs of deliveries and provide an additional advertising boost.
  • Entire filling operation can be done in the area covered by a typical office desk or shop bench.

Interested in owning a Soda Exchange Franchise?

Download the Soda Exchange Prospective Franchisee Application Form below. 
*The information on this form is the basis for a franchise application and will be kept confidential. This form is not to be construed as an offer of a franchise, a commitment or a binding agreement on either party.
The Franchise Disclosure Agreement will follow if your application is considered acceptable to The Soda Exchange. 
Complete Franchise Application Form Here

Bryan Rempel, Owner and Partner in The Soda Exchange

I welcome your interest in The Soda Exchange

My wife and I came up with the idea for the Soda Exchange in January of 2021 in the midst of COVID-19 lockdowns. My background is in starting businesses, especially online e-commerce businesses, for ourselves and for other people.

SodaStream™

We loved the refreshing SodaStream™ carbonation machine we owned, but hated the high price of exchanging CO2 cartridges at the Big Box stores. After a little research we found it was possible to refill these canisters, and that there were a number of people offering the same service, as long as you went to their locations. The advent of free home delivery modeled by Amazon upended the whole business model of expecting people to come to you. Plus, that expectation was often disappointing as we experienced trying to sell things on Facebook Marketplace, with people saying they were coming, waiting all day, then finding out they changed their minds and No Showed.

Automation

By exchanging CO2 cartridges on the customers’ doorsteps, we were able to build up local routes and deliver 20, 30 or more in a single day, rather than waiting for them to show up. Now organized routing became a problem with so many deliveries. So we worked with an app developer who was able to take the customer-entered information on the website and transfer that information to mobile apps in the drivers’ vehicles so they could efficiently have their routes mapped out and complete the delivery transactions on the road. This is the magic behind the Soda Exchange franchise. We have automated almost every aspect of the business so that our franchisees can operate lean and efficiently without the need for extra employees.

Business Model

The Soda Exchange business model is sheer genius because of its simplicity. All transactions are pre-paid on the website by credit card or e-transfer, so we have no receivables or bad debts. All communication with customers is automated with text and email notifications. The inventory is purchased from local retailers and any service issues with customer’s cartridges are solved by returning defective units back to those retailers, who in turn send them on to SodaStream™.

Duplicatable Model

Franchisees benefit from a single Soda Exchange url, sodaexchange.com, which redirects customers to the website of the local owner of the Soda Exchange franchise. This means all the advertising developed by Soda Exchange can work in any market area without having to customize the ad creatives, keeping things very simple.

Training and Experience

I have been a web developer and digital marketer for over 15 years, and have applied the “behind-the-scenes” skills to quickly build and develop this business. I built and sold my first franchise in the early 1980’s. Now the business models have radically changed with online technology, rapid delivery and high customer expectations. These are all fulfilled in the Soda Exchange business model.

I’d like to meet you!

If this all sounds interesting, I’d like to meet you in person, or more likely on Zoom, before we move ahead with your interest in The Soda Exchange. You can write to me at bryan@sodaexchange.com to set up a meeting. In the meantime, have a look at our Franchisee application by clicking the button above and below this article and I hope to see you on the other side.

Complete Franchise Application Form Here

Frequently Asked Questions

We set our prices based on the goals of the business, which were to encourage repeat business based on a “no brainer” model, at high volume, that puts us in control of our delivery schedule, by creating dense delivery routes with short distances between each delivery. Our prices were set based on a target profitability of 50% and costs contained within that 50%. So far we have been running close to that. 
Frankly the $10 per refilled cartridge was an arbitrary number designed to attract a loyal repeat customer base. In retrospect, going to $10.95 per cartridge would have brought an extra $5000 to our bottom line so far this year, and we may consider that in the new year. Still, “50% off Retail”  has a nice ring to it, and is easy for customers to understand. “45% off” would not have the same punch.
  
As for franshisees setting prices, that is going to be a tough one in a market as tightly packed as the Lower Mainland (BC), where we foresee 6-8 franchises working the area. It would be difficult to have neighbouring areas charging different prices.
We based our business model on encouraging the average order to be 3 or more cartridges delivered at one time to each customer. Our delivery charges are $5 per delivery for orders of 1 or 2 cartridges, but Free Delivery on orders of 3 or more. We have most of our customers upgrade to three at a time. In fact, my latest check shows that about 90% of all our orders are 3 or more. We have had people buy $80 of new cartridges from us to save the $5 fee. When we are dealing with $30 deliveries, that gives us a different profit picture, than doing them 1 or 2 at a time. 
 
To look at delivery charges in isolation, apart from our business model is somewhat irrelevant. Our goal is to have a customer who is ordering 6-10x per year from us, making their annual value as a customer in the $300 range per year, not the $10 in-the-home refillers that are waiting for customers to show up at their door. We did not want that. In fact we discourage that and do not allow it, even for neighbours on our own street who want to drop by. “We only deliver” I tell them, and they get that.
 
As for delivery efficiency, we have a highly developed delivery app that connects the website to the delivery driver, and maps out their routes for them. (Even in real time as orders come in, drivers can decide if that order fits in their current route. We have had deliveries happen within minutes of the order being placed in some instances.)  In addition, we only deliver to certain areas on certain days to minimize the running around. In our case, we live between two logical areas here in MIll Bay; we are north of the Greater Victoria area and service them on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. To the north of us is the Cowichan Valley up to Ladysmith, and we deliver those area on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Customers love this because they are never more than a couple of days from receiving their order. In addition, our system delivers automated communication with our customers through text and email that works at the push of a button from our drivers.
 
The secret to this business is not the CO2. It is is the convenience and the cost savings to the customers, which is delivered in a highly efficient manner. Just this past week our driver had a day in the Victoria area delivering 20 orders with a total of about 60 canisters, from Sooke to Sidney and through Victoria and Langford. He was back to Mill Bay in 4 hours and had delivered $600 in sales. Not every day is like that, but we can see that becoming the norm in the future as we grow through advertising and word of mouth. In the first couple of months of starting The Soda Exchange, I was using my car and my truck to do deliveries, with their higher fuel and operating costs. By the third month I bought a diesel Smart Car and our fuel costs dropped by $800 per month. We are on the lookout for our next Smart Car, and they are available for about $3000. Our Nanaimo franchisee bought one immediately after signing the franshise agreement. We are both looking for our next ones.