Sparkling Taps Are Becoming the Default Office Water Cooler. Operators Selling Plain Are Losing Margin

More than half of all new commercial water taps from one major maker now pour sparkling water. Sparkling is becoming the default office pour. It has moved from a perk to the spec that wins the contract. For water cooler operators, that shift changes the math on every new placement.

The data behind the shift

ITS are countertop units that pour chilled, ambient, boiling and sparkling water from one tap. Industry revenue across Europe rose around 8.5% in 2024, even as the number of dispensers placed fell. The growth came from higher-value taps, not from more units.

Why fewer machines can mean more money

The signal is simple. Operators are placing fewer machines but earning more from each one. Premium taps carry higher rental fees. They also pull in repeat income from consumables like CO2 canisters and filters. A plain bottled cooler earns a flat monthly rental and little else. A sparkling tap earns rental plus a steady stream of refills.

Why sparkling sells

The trend started on the high street. Shoppers swapped sugary sodas for sparkling and flavoured water. That taste then moved into the office. Workers now expect filtered, chilled and sparkling water at work, not a plain glass from the kitchen tap. POU water, or point of use water, means a unit plumbed into the mains. No bottles, no deliveries. Add sparkling and the same plumbed unit becomes a full drinks station. One maker reports that putting water at the centre of a breakroom lifts consumable sales by about 20%.

The margin and valuation angle

This is where it matters for owners and investors. A sparkling tap rents for more than a plain cooler. Each CO2 canister and filter swap adds a small, repeating sale on top of the rental. That recurring revenue is what buyers pay the highest multiples for. A fleet of plain bottled coolers is worth less per unit than a fleet of sparkling taps under contract. The operators who upsell sparkling now are building the asset base that sells best later.

The geographic gap

The ITS shift is uneven across Europe. Denmark has the highest ITS share on the continent by a wide margin. Sweden sits in second place. These Nordic markets tipped into taps first, helped by design taste and early green buying. The big prize is the markets that are POU-heavy but barely touch ITS. France is the clearest case. It is among the most POU-advanced markets in Europe, yet its ITS share stays tiny. Spain and Portugal sell almost no ITS at all. These low-ITS, high-base markets are where sparkling has the most room to grow.

What it means next

Sparkling now drives the decision to sign. Operators who still lead with plain coolers risk pricing themselves below the market. The smart move is to make sparkling the standard offer and price the consumables in. For investors, the question to ask any target is simple. What share of the fleet pours sparkling, and how fast is that share rising? That single number now tells you more about future value than the raw machine count.