A crisp and vodka entrepreneur is set to save Malvern Water from closure following a buyout from Coca Cola, it has been announced.
William Chase, the founder of Tyrrells Crisps and Chase Vodka, has revealed that he hopes to buy and reinvent the brand after its present owner, Coca-Cola, announced that the 108-year-old bottling plant in Herefordshire would be closing in October.
Chase told The Independent: "It's a good example of a fantastic brand that's been corporatised and killed by the big guys.
"It needs reinventing. It's got pedigree, it's got heritage, it just needs to be made a bit more sexy again."
According to Coca-Cola, the plant in Colwall was no longer economically viable, as it could not produce enough bottled water to be competitive against rival factories who are about ten times larger, and could produce more water in a day than Colwall did in a month.
A spokesman for Coca Cola, which has owned the brand since 1987, said: “Malvern has only ever had 1% of total bottled water sales in the UK in the past 10 years, despite the company's best efforts to change that. Over the past five years, we have placed Malvern in our vending machines in UK airports, pursued new contracts and invested in the Colwall plant.
“But we simply can't change the size of the plant, or extract the volume of water needed, for Malvern to compete in today's highly competitive bottled water sector."
However, Chase, has said that he intends to bottle the water at his nearby distillery, and dismissed speculation that small-scale operations would be a problem. "I just think it needs better marketing, really," he said. "It's obviously not a mass-market product, it's not as torrential as any of these other waters. It's a very exclusive, smart brand with a pedigree and that's where they've lost it; really, it's been cheapened.”
Malvern Water is reported to be the Queen’s favourite bottled water and Chase has said that he hoped to announce the confirmation of the sale this week.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2010