After years spent drawing spring water from the Ouachita Mountains in Arkansas, a group of former Mountain Valley Spring Company (MVSC) veterans are turning their attention to a different source from down south.
Ex-MVSC CEO Breck Speed and his daughter, Collins Pugh, formerly a director of marketing at the company, are part of the team behind SPLENDOR Water, an imported functional water from Ecuador that is set to launch online and at select retailers throughout the Southeast next month. Derived from a natural aquifer underneath Cotopaxi, one of the world’s tallest active volcanoes, SPLENDOR is being marketed as the only bottled water in the world to contain naturally occurring colloidal gold and silver, believed by some to provide health and mood benefits.
Though Speed and Pugh bring past experience in the category, SPLENDOR’s U.S. business is helmed by Sara Couch, who first encountered the brand during a family trip to Colombia in 2013. By that time, the product had already been on the market throughout Latin America for over a decade as a “healing water”: its original founder, scientist Guillermo Sotomayor, discovered the source in the 1980s while excavating near the volcano in an area called La Mana, known as one of the world’s “energy centers” due to its elevation and proximity to the equator.
As the story goes, when Sotomayor took his gravely ill daughter to bathe in the spring water, she made a miraculous recovery, and the water was subsequently studied and recognized by local doctors and health practitioners as naturally inflammatory and beneficial for improving overall health and energy levels.
Upon learning about the brand and witnessing its effects, Couch’s father, David, became a minority investor in SPLENDOR in 2013 before eventually acquiring a controlling stake the following years. Now, having added the industry experience of Pugh and Speed, the company is hoping to make a splash within the functional source water category in the U.S.
“Gold and silver is an interesting natural mineral that a lot of people don’t have,” said Pugh, SPLENDOR’s Director of U.S. Business Development. “And it’s not just having that gold and silver, but it’s having all of the (minerals) work together to kind of create this overall picture.”
With its Latin American business already mature, SPLENDOR is taking a tiered approach to its U.S. retail rollout, starting with direct-to-consumer sales before moving to partner with select lower-scale retailers in the North Carolina area next year, including destination venue Summerfield Farms, owned by David Couch. The product will be available in 100% rPET blue plastic bottles in four sizes — 1.5 liter, 1 liter, 750 milliliter, and 500 milliliter — and in 350ml and 750ml glass bottles. A 16.9 oz. single-serving bottle will cost around $1.50, while the 350ml glass bottle will be sold for around $4.50.
“The Splendor Team has already proven in South America the viability of their premium water brand with substantial market share and sales growth,” said Speed in an email to BevNET. “They are now well positioned with a marketing plan customized for North America and the addition of glass packaging to make an impact in the United States.”
Along with adding a third reservoir for extraction, the company is planning to open a wellness retreat at the site at a future date. But, since the natural source is a key selling point for SPLENDOR, these development plans also pose a unique challenge for the company’s goal of scaling while still preserving the local ecosystem and maintaining quality standards.
“We’re currently in a lot of different studies with our land areas, working with a hydrologist trying to figure out how to be really mindful about what we are tapping and really protecting [the] source itself in the area of conservation against a lot of illegal mining that happens in the area because of the gold and silver all over,” said Couch, adding that part of the brand’s efforts involve working to place the surrounding lands into conservation to protect it from illegal mining. “But we have several different locations already kind of tapped for our third [well], and we are very much able to scale [with production capacity from existing reservoirs] probably here for the next three years.”
As it ramps up towards a widespread launch later in 2022, the brand will also be tasked with building awareness for its functional benefits without making specific claims in its marketing or on its package. Still, that hasn’t stopped other water-with-benefits brands like smartwater, blk. (Fulvic acid) and Nirvana Water Sciences (HMB) from striking a chord with consumers. According to data from Statista, the functional bottled water market is expected to top $5 billion by 2022.
“It’s all really been word of mouth and people who get on it say you can really tell the differences with the water, and when you’re left without it you crave it,” said Sarah Couch. “So I think, as we get into larger marketing and start working with some larger names and influencers, it’s really trying to focus on organic true use and people that really believe in it and understand why it makes a difference.”