It’s been nearly 10 years since Durango Soda Company sold it’s first bottle of Zuberfizz at a local Dairy Queen. The company now bottles and sells 170 cases of the sweet stuff each day.

Despite the nation’s slow economy, this month Zuberfizz will double sales compared with November 2009, said the company’s owners, Dan Aggeler and Banden Zuber.

And even though the company’s annual sales in 42 states – including “mom and pop” stores, Colorado’s King Sooper stores and in 300 World Market stores – is approaching $1 million annually, Aggeler said it’s Durango customers who “pay our bills.”

“Durango is very supportive of locally made products,” Aggeler said.

But residents do more than just buy Zuberfizz products and keep the company going, Aggeler and Zuber said.

“It’s hard to quantify just how much Durango has played a role in our success,” Zuber said, but the unique flair of the city and its residents definitely does help.

People all over the country are buying Zuberfizz sodas, which are made with many natural and organic ingredients. They’re buying because the company’s ingredients are better than those used by national beverage companies and for nostalgic reminders of family vacations on the Western Slope, the men said.

They’re the kinds of reasons behind making a purchase that can be recession-proof, Aggeler said. And appealing to those emotional ties has meant annual company growth of 30 percent or more for the last five years.

“Slow and steady, that’s always our philosophy,” Zuber said.