Sparkling competes with Cimes and Ivess in the domestic market

bubblythe a company synonymous with bottled water dispensers for offices It has changed owners, but also goals.

A local group of shareholders, which he leads Kevin Pedreiraan entrepreneur from the soda industry in the north of GBA, bought the brand from American Culligan in December 2021.

The company, which was created 30 years ago by an Argentinian group, passed through several hands until it ended up in a multinational company. But restrictions on exchange and foreign trade forced them to part with the brand, which is now back in local hands.

The market is expected to recover and compete with the other two large companies in the sector, Cimes and Ivess. For that They launched an investment and innovation plan. Although, for now will only offer bottled water They come with the intention of taking the whole water and soda industry to a new level.

The company owns a factory in the Chacarita district where 135 people work, it has a processing capacity of 6.4 million liters of water per month and has a laboratory for microbiological analyses.

bubbly Billed $1.5 billion in 2022 and invested $250 million in fixed assets. They have 22 urban distribution units for supplies more than 10,000 homes customers between homes, businesses and companies.

“We are very well positioned in companies. Culligan basically focused its business on offices and left the retail market in the hands of two other large companies. They have a very large distribution network, and we only operate in CABA and GBA. Now we want to recover the market,” he said the company’s commercial and marketing director, Alejandro Pozzoabout the company’s present and the plan they have launched.

The axle should be mounted on the differential offered by the brand, which still maintains the idea that Sparkling is generic when it comes to water dispensers.

InnoVAR HR Old school industry

In addition to the presence of carbonated drinks and water from large bottling plants in supermarkets, the industry in that sector has maintained a home distribution format for decades with one hand multitude of small and medium enterprises who work independently or for two big brands with very special characteristics.

ivess It’s not like that kind of company. It is an acronym for the Instituto Verificador de Elaboración de Soda y Sifones, a non-profit civil association that offers its brand to a large number of affiliated small and medium-sized enterprises that work according to its elaboration standards. you willMeanwhile, it is a company that operates franchises across the country.

“We see that It is the market that has been working the same way for more than 40 years. They did not innovate in product or distribution. It’s a very special market where Sparkling wants to start innovating,” says Pozzo.

On one hand, they want to be distinguished by their quality. “We work with very high quality standards because many of our clients are companies that require these standards, like Shell or Raizen.”

Carbonated water goes through a triple filtration process (physical, chemical and bacteriological) to guarantee the quality standards required by the Argentine Food Code and finally exclusive ozonation process which guarantees the elimination of all microbiological organisms and extends the shelf life of the product up to 60 days.

“In ours laboratory we discover in many Water samples from other companies very high levels of pollution. That’s why we started spreading the campaign of good practices, because no one on the market is talking about it. It’s one thing to buy water from a local company that doesn’t have it or isn’t even food code registered, it’s another thing to buy it from one of the big three. The water service is undervalued and there is also very little control,” says Pozzo.

“We want to turn the water dispenser into another household appliance from home It not only offers cold or hot water, but is also aesthetically pleasing. We want the bottle to be in a hidden place and you can get ice or put in a coffee capsule,” he says.

Unfortunately, import restrictions – the same ones that forced Culligan out of the country – meant that suppliers of water machines did not have the raw materials to manufacture them.

“Since they cannot supply us, we have started the task of recycling the scrapped dispensers and are even looking at how to produce the missing parts. Unfortunately, we have to focus on these things instead of focusing on improving production,” complains Sparling.

They currently produce bottles of 6, 12 and 20 liters and sell taps of natural water, hot-cold and connected to the network. Low sodium versions and water cans are coming soon.