Nestlé Waters North America

Nestlé Waters North America, Inc. is a business-unit of Nestlé that produces and/or distributes numerous brands of water across North America. Continent-wide brands include Perrier and San Pellegrino. Key people include Tim Brown (President and CEO), Bill Pearson (EVP Finance, CFO), and David Colville (CIO). It is based in Stamford, Connecticut.

Regional brands

Nestlé also produces bottled water under various brand names depending on the region. These brands include Arrowhead, Calistoga, Deer Park, Ice Mountain, Ozarka, Poland Spring, and Zephyrhills.

Nestlé Pure Life is produced by Nestlé Waters North America since 2002. Prior to that, it was known as Aberfoyle Springs and had been produced by the Aberfoyle Springs company since 1993.

After purchasing the Aberfoyle Springs brand and facilities in 2000, Nestlé changed the name first, in 2002, to "Nestlé Pure Life Aberfoyle," and then to "Nestlé Pure Life Natural Spring Water". Nestlé also bottles the Montclair brand in its facilities.

Nestlé's Aberfoyle Springs plant currently bottles two different waters: the on-site Aberfoyle spring water, and spring water tankered in from Cedar Valley Spring in Erin, Ontario. In addition, spring water is bottled on-site in Hope, British Columbia. In the United States, Nestlé Pure Life is a purified (filtered) water.

Nestlé Waters is currently Canada's largest water bottling company, with two bottling facilities. The larger of the facilities is located in Aberfoyle, Ontario with the second facility located in Hope, British Columbia and warehouses located in Chilliwack, British Columbia and Laval, Quebec.

Nestlé Waters sells three European Brands: Perrier, San Pellegrino and Acqua Panna.

Poland Spring is a brand of bottled water manufactured by a subsidiary of Nestlé.^[1] It was founded in 1845 by Hiram Ricker. Poland Spring water is derived from multiple sources in the state of Maine, including Poland Spring and Garden Spring in Poland, Clear Spring in Hollis, Evergreen Spring in Fryeburg, Spruce Spring in Pierce Pond Township, and White Cedar Spring in Dallas Plantation. Recently, the Poland Spring brand has adopted a bottle using 60% less plastic^[2], as did the other Nestlé Waters North America brands.^[3] It is the top-selling spring water brand in the United States.^[1]

Water sales

In 1891, Maine's Bureau of Industrial and Labor Statistics listed 81 existing mineral springs. Twenty-three were used for commercial bottling, with total sales of $400,000. $200,000 of these sales were by Poland Spring.

Today Poland Spring sells the majority of its water in portable 8, 12, and 20 oz bottles; 500 ml, 700 ml, 1 L, and 1.5 L bottles, but also carries larger 5-US-gallon (19 L) bottles usable in office or in home water dispensers. Smaller 1-US-gallon (3.8 L) and 2.5-US-gallon (9.5 L) bottles are also available for sale in most supermarkets, and for home delivery in the Northeastern United States. Other less popular varieties of Poland Spring include sparkling, lemon, lime, and distilled. All Poland Spring products are sold in plastic bottles, for both safety and economical reasons. They are also the producers of the Aquapod line of products.

In the summer of 2005, Poland Spring changed the color of its 1-US-gallon (3.8 L) bottle cap from dark green to clear. The reason for the color change was to remove the dye from the cap, which allows it to enter the recycling stream. Poland Spring later changed to a lighter bottle called the Eco-Shape which uses 30 percent less plastic.^[3] The new style made its début in November 2007.^[4]

Controversies

Nestlé S.A., the World's largest producer of bottled water, is frequently criticised for the ethics of its global control of limited water sources, often with the result of limiting access to those resources by local peoples, as well as environmental concerns. ^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]}

Water sourcing issues

Ice Mountain has been part of the Great Lakes water use debate in which diversion of the basin's water for export has been controversial.^[12] In 2004, a Michigan court ordered pumping of Sanctuary springs to cease. After an appellate court overturned the cease and desist, the company and local groups came to an agreement to pump only 218 US gallons (830 L) per minute, which is comparable to other local beverage operations.^[13] Nestlé has run into similar local opposition when trying to locate a new source location near the headwaters of the White River in the upper lower peninsula of Michigan. ^[14]

Several towns in Maine have objected to the business practices of Poland Spring and its parent company Nestlé. In some towns, such as Fryeburg, Maine, Poland Spring actually buys the water (110 million US gallons (420,000 m³) of water from Fryeburg a year) from another company, the Fryeburg Water Co., and ships it to the Poland Spring bottling plant in Poland Spring.^[15] However, Fryeburg Water Co. also sells water to the town of Fryeburg.

The town of Fryeburg began to question the amount of water the company was selling to Poland Spring. In 2004, the town's water stopped temporarily because of a pump failure, but Poland Spring's operations were able to continue.^[1] The group H₂O for ME wants to create a tax on water drawn for commercial purposes, however, Poland Spring said the tax would force the company into bankruptcy.^[16] State congressman Jim Wilfong proposed a 20 cent per1-US-gallon (3.8 L) tax be allowed to be voted on in a referendum, but the measure was defeated. He also believes that laws should be rearranged to place limits on the amount of groundwater landowners can pump out of their land.^[1]

The town of Sterling, Massachusetts is attempting to prevent Nestlé from pumping spring water from conservation restricted town land. Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) has responded to an RFP issued by the Town of Clinton to purchase the Town of Clinton's Wekepeke aquifer water rights located in Sterling.^[17]

False advertisement

In June 2003, Poland Spring was sued for false advertising in a class action lawsuit charging that their water that supposedly comes from springs, is in fact heavily treated common ground water.^[18] The suit also states, hydro-geologists hired by Nestlé found that another current source for Poland Spring water near the original site stands over a former trash and refuse dump, and below an illegal disposal site where human sewage was sprayed as fertilizer for many years.^[18] The suit was settled in September 2003, with the company not admitting to the allegations, but agreeing to pay $10 million in charity donations and discounts over the next 5 years.^[19] Nestlé continues to sell the same Maine water under the Poland Spring name.

Aquapod

Aquapod, manufactured by Nestlé Waters North America through the Ice Mountain brand, is a non-carbonated natural spring water, targeted towards children. It is packaged in an 11-ounce bottle, shaped like an orb.

"With new orbtastic shape!" is the catch phrase commonly associated with the Aquapod range.

References

External links

• www.aquapod.com Brand advertising site
• Poland Spring-Aquapod Page
• Ozarka-Aquapod Page
• Arrowhead-Aquapod Page
• Ice Mountain - Aquapod Page
• Deer Park - Aquapod Page
• Zephyrhills - Aquapod Page
• Ice Mountain website
• Official website
• Official web site