BE WTR sources native water in every market to rethink the world’s ingesting habits
After I first met Mike Hecker at a restaurant this Sep, he carried an enormous black backpack and wore a brilliant orange and yellow Hawaiian shirt and cream-coloured Bermuda shorts. Based mostly on first impressions alone, I’d by no means have imagined that he was one of many founding members of the well-known espresso model Nespresso.
In actual fact, he was worker quantity six. He advised me that one in every of his first duties was to take a look at a clean piece of paper and give you a advertising technique.
Mike performed a pivotal function in creating the model’s enterprise mannequin and advertising technique since its inception in 1988, which has since enabled the enterprise to develop into one of many world’s main gamers within the espresso business at this time.
After a decade within the espresso business, he opted to go away Nespresso to start out his personal enterprise. Nonetheless, familiarity reared its head, and Mike ventured into one other beverage: water, co-founding water supply firm Eden Springs Europe in 1998.
In response to him, the corporate grew to become one of many largest gamers in Europe’s ingesting water business, with over 3,000 staff and water sources in each 300km from Poland to Portugal. However one thing in regards to the enterprise mannequin didn’t sit effectively with Mike—transporting drinks over lengthy distances generated important greenhouse fuel emissions and contributed to local weather change.
“I used to be in what I name at this time a polluter,” he stated. “Being a mountaineer who loves the mountains of Switzerland, I noticed the snow and local weather change eroding the glaciers.” This led him to work on a extra sustainable answer and marvel if he might replicate Nespresso’s progress within the espresso business for water.
And so, he based BE WTR in 2012 to satisfy his imaginative and prescient.
Manufacturing, bottling & promoting water on dwelling soil
As a substitute of counting on a single supply and transporting water internationally, BE WTR establishes its personal filtration and bottling facility in every nation, sourcing native water to distribute. The corporate has additionally chosen to comply with a B2B mannequin, collaborating with resorts and different gamers within the F&B business.
In Singapore, BE WTR has fashioned partnerships with established resorts, together with Raffles Lodge and Shangri-La Singapore, in addition to identified eating places reminiscent of Tipsy Collective.
Mike defined that the resort and F&B industries have an apparent want for water, the place the standard of the model is emphasised by way of room and eating providers, permitting them to have a transparent benefit for resorts seeking to enhance their visitor experiences.
He additionally identified that their B2B mannequin, which includes manufacturing, bottling, and distributing their water in glass bottles, requires them to have their very own circuit of back-and-forth assortment. Avoiding B2C is on goal, as doing so requires a extra advanced course of, and there are logistical limitations because of the bottles’ fragility.
Most bottled water manufacturers usually depend on plastic or single-use glass packaging, however Mike wished BE WTR’s merchandise to be constructed to final for prolonged intervals. As such, the glass the corporate makes use of is the most costly, because it should have a shelf lifetime of a 12 months and face up to greater than 300 cleansing cycles.
Though he acknowledges that their merchandise are dearer in comparison with plastic water bottles, he believes they’re a extra environmentally pleasant and economical answer to imported water.
“What we’re right here to do is persuade Singaporeans that one of the best water they need to drink is water from Singapore. And if we obtain this, it’s nice for the patron, it’s nice for the F&B, as a result of they are often pleased with what they serve. And it’s nice for the surroundings.”
Adapting their answer to Singapore
When it was time for the Swiss firm to determine itself in Southeast Asia, it selected Singapore as its first market and formally launched its automated bottling plant in 2024. Mike shared that the city-state is one in every of BE WTR’s key markets, as just one facility is required to serve the entire nation.
He additionally added that establishing themselves in Singapore permits them to grasp how Asians devour water otherwise from their dwelling base in Switzerland. For instance, sizzling water and beverage choices are most popular in Asia over glowing water. “How will we adapt, or how will we educate the market, is vital,” stated Mike.
However, right here’s the catch: As a Singaporean, I’m conscious of the sustainable choices obtainable and that I ought to go for them; but, generally we attain for much less environmentally pleasant choices as they’re cheaper and extra handy.
This behavior stays an enigma for Mike, who defined that whereas there’s a consensus on what sustainable choices can be found, it’s not translated into dine-in providers.
“I discover it odd that it’s okay to have a ‘inexperienced’ bottle from Italy served because the reference of glowing water, as a result of it doesn’t make sense to deliver that bottle 6,000 kilometers away in glass a technique, after which throw the glass away.”
In response to Mike, extra power is required to supply glass bottles in comparison with plastic. Whereas microplastics are dangerous to the surroundings when mismanaged, glass is pricey and heavy to move, ensuing within the release of more greenhouse gases.
Due to this fact, by utilizing glass bottles that may final for a decade, relatively than single-use glass bottles, it not solely lowers the carbon footprint but in addition gives a extra economical answer, which some eco-friendly corporations have been advocating for.
Making their mark on extra worldwide markets
Since establishing its dwelling base in Switzerland, BE WTR has been doubling its manufacturing quantity each six months and has expanded internationally to a number of markets, together with the UAE, France, and Canada.
With Singapore as its first cease in Asia, the corporate has additionally arrange two bottling crops in China, with plans to launch its third facility in Shanghai by the top of 2025.
“We’ll open within the UK, London, and Morocco for year-end, after which subsequent 12 months we’ll see many extra markets,” added Mike.
Other than establishing itself in cities, Mike additionally expressed his ambitions for the model to arrange in islands, such because the Caribbean. He defined that the severity of sustainability and waste administration points these territories expertise is 10 occasions worse, and the corporate is adopting a extra cautious method to its entry.
“An Island has 10 occasions extra of an issue of sustainability, as a result of no matter you import, what do you do with it? You don’t export again your waste. So that you must actually watch out, in any other case you strangle the island by way of waste.”
Featured Picture Credit score: BE WTR
