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Date: 12/31/2021
LUDLOW - For over 100 years, Harmony Springs has offered fresh soda, seltzer, and water to Western Massachusetts residents.
Henry Lajca, co-owner of Harmony Springs, said the business started in the early 1900s.
“The business has been around since 1908, it started in Northampton and then in 1948 the business moved to Ludlow because the founders found the perfect artesian well, so they moved the business and it has been in Ludlow since 1948,” he said.
Lajca said when he and co-owner Elizabeth Kloc took over the business they immediately focused more on soda production.
“We purchased the business from the founders in 2012 so we have been running the soda business since then. We went in a completely different direction. When we purchased the business, the focus was on home delivery of water and seltzers, hardly any retail,” he said.
Since taking over, Lajca said he has shifted away from home deliveries to focus on retail.
“Now it is very limited, we no longer do the water business, it is costly. We moved to the retail side of the business, and we focused on the 12-ounce soda and seltzer business. As a courtesy to longtime clients, we do a seltzer home delivery once a month,” he said.
Across the brand’s 18 flavors, Lajca said some of the flavors sell better than others.
“We have 18 soda flavors and four seltzer flavors. It is hard to tell what our most popular flavors are, they all sell pretty well. A good indicator is our relationship with Big Y, so we looked to see which are selling the best at Big Y and about 12 are selling about even,” he said.
While some flavors are not as appealing to some, Lajca said root beer is one of the more popular flavors.
“Ginger beer is not a soda you just pop open and drink, and same thing with quinine, those are not sodas you just pick up. I would say root beer is our number one because we service a lot of farm stand and ice cream stands for their root beer floats,” he said.
Lajca explained that restaurant closures due to COVID-19 had a significant impact on business.
“We were doing well until the pandemic hit, that set us back quite a bit because we serviced a lot of restaurants. When the restaurants closed and switched to take out only, people did not buy soda with their takeout, so it set us back quite a bit,” he said. “The pandemic had a major effect on our business.”
As restaurants continue to open back up, Lajca says business is looking up.
“We are beginning to pick up, our clients are coming back, they are reopening the restaurants and placing their orders. We also picked up some new clients and established a relationship with a distributor that services the entirety of New England. That only started about a month ago, but we are hoping it picks up,” he said. “We are beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel.”
For people looking to pickup some Harmony Springs Soda, Lajca said Big Y is one of their biggest retail partners.
“On the retail side it is Big Y, I would say we do not have that many local, community grocery stores that carries our soda. Big Y covers all of Massachusetts and several Big Ys in northern Connecticut carry our soda,” he said.
While the soda might be more expensive, Lajca said it is some of the best soda around.
“Some people say our soda is a little too expensive, but we have a very unique and high-quality soda. We have what we believe is the best water you can get in Western Massachusetts,” he said.
On top of the soda business, people can come fill their own jugs of water at Harmony Springs’ factory.
“We also have a lot of people in the local community that come with their own jugs to fill up for 50 cents per gallon and you get the best water you can possibly get in all of Western Massachusetts, so people are always welcome to visit us and fill up their jugs,” he said.
Harmony Springs is located at 136 Yale St. in Ludlow.