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Georgia water scion springs into new business
The 28-year-old son of the founder of Georgia Mountain Water has formed his own business to quench the thirst of local companies and consumers.
Jamie Carroll sees a parched market for water in offices and among consumers. His new company, Fontis Mountain Spring Water, hopes to refresh that market. (Fontis is the Latin word for fountain.)
Carroll’s father, James Carroll, sold his local water company, Georgia Mountain Water Inc., after 20 years in business to Atlanta-based Suntory Water Group Inc., a division of beverage giant Suntory International Corp., in 2000.
Atlantans drink their share of water, as many as 2.1 servings of bottled water every day, according to a consumer survey conducted by Yankelovich Partners for the International Bottled Water Association.
Metro residents also drink a good deal of the Chattahoochee straight from the tap. The same survey from the bottled water trade group found locals drink 4.1 servings of tap water each day.
Water has become big business for companies like Suntory, as well as The Coca-Cola Co. (through its Dasani brand), and its archival PepsiCo Inc. (through Aquafina). Bottled water has tripled into a $7.6 billion market nationwide.
The bottled water trade group study said the average person drinks 21.1 gallons of bottled water each year. But that’s still behind average consumption of beer (22.6 gallons a year), milk (22.6 gallons) and coffee (21.9 gallons). And nothing comes close to soft drinks in terms of U.S. thirst. The average American drinks 54 gallons of soda in a year.
Still, demand for bottled water is growing about 10 percent annually, faster than other categories, and there are 500 domestic brands of bottled water (on top of 200 import labels), according to industry estimates.
Carroll said that leaves enough business for a small provider. “Bigger isn’t always better,” he said in a statement. “Some of the larger bottled water providers just don’t have the personal touch required to develop quality relationships based on trust with their customers.
“With our sweltering summers and the city’s active lifestyle, I see a major opportunity here at home,” he said.
Carroll, who has been in the water business since he started washing out Georgia Mountain Water coolers at age 14, also complained that much bottled water is simply filtered tap water. Fontis Water will source from a spring on 400 acres his family owns in the Georgia Blue Ridge Mountains.
Fontis, based in Marietta, will offer five-gallon, 3.5-gallon and single-serving bottles of H2O in the 13-county metro area this summer.
Tagged: bottledwater, water delivery, metro atlanta, summer
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