With tap water as practical as it is constantly monitored as a competitor, bottled water, whether spring or mineral, is struggling. For a year, their market has fallen by 3.3% in volume and value, in line with the awareness of the disaster of plastic pollution. How can they restore their image? A few independent entrepreneurs have rolled up their sleeves to reinvent this industry.
“In November 2020, we hid our water wall, testifies Ferréol de Bony, purchasing director of La Grande Epicerie de Paris. With the crisis, our department was no longer adapted to demand. Many of us now walk around with a gourd. ” In 2012, his store had indeed masterfully presented an entire wall of water bottles from France and elsewhere, like rare vintages. “But, with what we experienced in 2020, there is a decrease in consumption of water transported in bottles, which gives a bad ecological image. We are on the way to a return to more local consumption ”, specifies the buyer.
The purest water on Earth
It is certain that Fiji water, which comes from an artesian well on Viti Letu, the largest island of the Fiji archipelago, has an interest in having solid virtues to reach Paris. If its success continues despite everything, it is because it is considered the purest water on Earth. La Grande Epicerie was one of the first to import it into France. But this remains an exception in this rapidly changing universe.
Other water brands must reinvent themselves, with limited editions in preview, for example, as when Perrier joined forces with artist Takashi Murakami. Fashion then comes to the rescue, opening up a new world to water bottles, that of tableware.
The solution of Nestlé Waters (owner of Perrier) is not really that of others, who rely on their taste and nutritional value. If water like Châteldon overcomes crises, it is because its finesse is not reproducible at home.
“The way we treat water is the way we treat people. »Damien Chalret du Rieu, co-founder of La Compagnie des Pyrénées
Over the past ten years, a certain number of entrepreneurs, concerned about ecological issues, have acquired sources with the intention of exploiting them as virtuously as possible. Each has studied the issue at length and found its innovative and unique solution.
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