A 100-year-old Egyptian soda brand gets a new lease on life. A sensational comeback is being staged by Spiro Spathis, Egypt’s oldest carbonated drinks company that has been in business for over 100 years.
“Spathis” has been part of the Egyptian culture for generations and can be traced back to a Greek beekeeper of Kefalonia who founded it in 1920.
Due to the nationwide boycott campaign against Western companies that support Israel, the century-old brand is causing a stir these days as the poster child for the Egyptian solidarity with the Palestinians, thanks to a nationwide boycott campaign.
As Egypt’s first soft drink brand, Spiro Spathis is proud to have been the first, and is now rolling out slogans that include “100% Made in Egypt” and “Egypt’s Original Gazouza”, using a term commonly used to describe fizzy drinks that has been derived from the French word gazeuse (carbonated) and is believed to have originated in Egypt.
The demand for Spathis has surged in recent months
It has been four years since I started selling their drinks. Mohammed, who owns a grocery store in the Sharqia governorate of the Emirate of Dubai, told The Daily Star that there were always a few customers who preferred Spiro to other drinks, but not many.
There is a problem, however, in that their bottles run out almost instantly. As a result of the boycott, I now have the opportunity to sell as many as 50 boxes of Spathis in a single day if there are sufficient supplies in stock. Before the boycott, I would sell four, maybe five, boxes of Spathis per week. Now, I am able to sell as many as 50 boxes per day,” he added.
A spokesperson for the company, Morcus Talaat, told Al Jazeera that the demand for their products has tripled over the past month, and his company is owned by three siblings.
Talaat spoke to Al Jazeera between back-to-back meetings at the apartment where Sprio Spathis’ headquarters are located in a nice neighbourhood in Cairo, where he has a no-frills, two-bedroom, ground-floor apartment. Hundreds of calls have been received from new clients, and offers from restaurants have been made to us.”
A recruitment drive has been launched by Spiro Spathis, and more than 15,000 applications have been received for jobs it advertised in order to meet the demand for the job opportunities.
According to a kiosk owner in Cairo’s Nasr City neighborhood, there is a shortage of Spathis in the market, as the demand for this dish cannot be met. There have been only four deliveries to me in the past month, and every single day, it sells out by the time I get home from work. In the past, Spathis’ stocks lasted for a longer period of time.”
It is one of the most popular tools for protesting
Since October 7, Israel has been bombarding and invading Gaza non-stop, killing more than 11,500 Palestinians, and this has sparked mass protests across the globe as a result of the Israeli offensive.
The situation has also prompted many people to boycott international brands like McDonald’s and Starbucks because of the situation.
During the Israeli military’s war on Gaza, Indonesian consumers began boycotting Mcdonald’s and other businesses following McDonald’s Israel’s announcement on social media that thousands of free meals had been given out to the Israeli military to help them stay alive.
There were several organizations that were prompted to call for a boycott of McDonald’s and other businesses that are perceived to be pro-Israel, like Burger King, when the announcement was made, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), the United People Front (FUB) and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), among others.
There is an ongoing protest movement across the globe, from Washington, DC, to London and Cape Town, which has led to the closure of many franchise restaurants, coffee shops and retail outlets that were once busy and bustling in the Arab World.
“Boycotting is one of the most powerful means of pressure on Western colonialism and capitalism-fuelled states, and it has become a widely accepted way for people to make their voices heard,” said Jamal Zahran, political science professor at the University of Suez. There is a great deal of potential for local products to benefit from boycotting these products.”
There is a fly in front of me. Is that it? ’
Since the start of the war, Egyptians have used social media as a way to exchange information about what brands they consider to be supportive of Israel and which ones should be avoided in order to preserve security. As an alternative to Western brands, there are also some apps that list local producers who are of the same or similar quality as Western brands.
The question “Is this brand with us, or is it not? As people are researching which brand to give up, “What’s the best brand to give up?” is an often asked question on Meta posts about different brands.
In response to this situation, local substitutes have been rediscovering themselves including Spiro Spathis, which was once the only soda drinks manufacturer in a country with the third largest population in the Arab world.
It was eventually sidelined as some other international brands entered the market about 70 years ago, then flooded the local market, causing the company to lose its market share. There were even rumors that Spiro Spathis was shutting down entirely in 2014, according to Talaat. “It is my family’s second generation of Egyptians who own and operate the firm. He bought the company in 1998 and ran it until he passed away in 2009, at which point our father sold the company to his son. After we closed down Spiro Spathis in 2014, we returned to the market again in 2019 and we have been present every day of the year since then,” he said.
There are many local soda drinks companies in Egypt, however, Spathis is the one that has received the most praise from many online users in Egypt in terms of quality and taste.
With the company’s history and logo being trending on social media sites, the company’s history has gained attention and triggered the curiosity of many younger generations who are unaware of the brand’s history.
The question has been raised: “Why does the logo have a fly in it? ” A few people on social media have asked this question.
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