By SUSAN SCHABEN
Everyone knows we can’t live without water, but can we live without bottled water?
The new president of Italian-based Sol & #233; bottled water company hopes not.
Sure, her company competes with some of the biggest bottlers out there,San Pellegrino, Perrier and Evian,but Sol & #233; just wants its place in the sun.
“My biggest challenge is brand awareness,” said Sally Ver Vynck, who has revamped the firm’s labeling and marketing since taking the reins and moving the U.S. operation to OC last year.
Sol & #233;, whose sales were a modest $3 million last year, is barely a drop in the bucket compared with the 10 largest brands that have 44.9% of the $4.9 billion bottled-water market, according to Beverage World magazine. (The Perrier Group’s four brands have a 30.5% market share, the Suntory Water Group has a 9.7% stake and McKesson has 8%. Last year, the industry as a whole saw its greatest sales growth since 1989,14%,but that can be chalked up in part to Y2K fears.)
Still, Sol & #233;’s 1999 total was a 30% gain from 1998, and Ver Vynck plans to keep growing her company’s sales through targeted advertising, upscale event sponsorships and placement in restaurants and hotels such as the Four Seasons in West Palm Beach, the Four Seasons Biltmore in Santa Barbara and the Argyle in downtown Los Angeles.
The bottled water industry is new to Ver Vynck. The former restaurateur spent nine years working with David Wilhelm, first under Pacific Restaurant Ventures and later at Culinary Restaurant Ventures, whose chairman is former Taco Bell executive John Martin. Ver Vynck was director of operations for the restaurant group that operates French 75, Diva, Savannah Chop House and Chimayo Grill. A graduate of California Polytechnic University in hotel and restaurant management, Ver Vynck got her start at Mr. Stox in Anaheim as a hostess, later moving into sales for conventions and banquets.
“This is a chance for me to do something completely new,” she said of her switch to the beverage industry. She is one of four partners with an equity position in Sol & #233;. The privately held company’s majority shareholder is Stephan Goodchild, owner of French vineyard and winery Chateau Miraval. Two other owners are silent partners whose family owns the bottling plant and water source in the Italian Alps.
The water source has been tapped by the Italians since the 1600s, but the present shareholders have operated the water bottle operation for 25 years, she said.
Ver Vynck landed a job as a consultant with Sol & #233; a year ago, but in September its owners asked her to replace President Richard Moore, who had been with the company since 1993. Seven months ago, she moved the company’s U.S. headquarters from Palm Springs to Orange County, where she hired On the Edge Design in Newport Beach to create a new sun logo and bottle label. She has steered the company into sponsoring numerous events nationally, including some at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton and the Nantucket Wine Festival on Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.
The company’s new billboard advertisements are simple, featuring the company’s signature green bottle with the taglines: “Sol & #233; Indulgence,” “Heart and Sol & #233;” and “Simply Sol & #233;.”
At her modest OC offices, Ver Vynck oversees about 12 employees. The company imports its product and has 33 distributors in the U.S., including Orange-based Young’s Market Co. She is working to reopen distribution in Canada and has opened new markets in Brazil and Costa Rica, which are both handled from Italy.
Locally, Sol & #233; is sold in upscale specialty supermarkets such as Bristol Farms and Trader Joe’s. The water is available in five bottle sizes and retail prices range from $1.19 to $3.80 per bottle.
