Closing a year of significant distribution gains, AQUAhydrate today announced that its high-alkaline bottled waters are now available chain-wide at Rite Aid and Speedway, as well as 900 Target stores.
“AQUAhydrate has seen consistent growth year-over-year, and 2016 is no different,” said Hal Kravitz, CEO of AQUAhydrate, in a press release. “Gaining these new retailers greatly enhances our national footprint, giving consumers even more opportunities to purchase this premium brand.”
Although premium water holds just a 2.3 percent share of the $14 billion bottled water market, the segment continues to expand, growing at a rate of 20 percent since the beginning of 2016, according to data from market research firm SPINS. In a 52-week period ending on July 10, 2016, SPINS reported that AQUAhydrate sales grew by 37 percent.
The growth has been fueled by an uptick in distribution of AQUAhydrate. The brand, perhaps best known for its affiliation with celebrity investors Mark Wahlberg and Sean “Diddy” Combs, aggressively expanded its retail footprint, which now stands at 65,000 stores, in 2016.
The addition of 2,800 Speedway locations increases AQUAhydrate’s presence in the C-store channel, an area in which the brand has already largely seeded.
“C-stores have traditionally been our strength,” said Kravitz in an interview with BevNET. “We resonate well with the active, on-the-go consumer. We continue to put a lot of pressure on that, and we’ve had a lot of good wins over the last couple years.”
Achieving full availability in all 4,600 Rite Aid locations nationwide represents a significant step forward in AQUAhydrate’s efforts to penetrate into drug stores. The water will be available on ambient shelves in all Rite Aid stores and in coolers at 900 locations.
“Rite Aid really got us in the drug channel in a big way,” Kravitz said, adding that the company is awaiting decisions on entering the other two major drugstore chains, CVS and Walgreens.
Following drug and C-stores, AQUAhydrate has its sights set on penetrating the mass consumer or “big box” channel next. After a test run at 55 Target stores in 2015, the retailer agreed to take in AQUAhydrate at its locations in the Northeast and West regions, placing 1 L and 700 mL bottles on ambient shelves at 750 locations.
Kravitz, however, adds that the brand has a “hunting license” for the 1,200 more Target stores, in which it has authorization but must negotiate for placement in ambient and cold space outside of the traditional bottled water section through local distributors and sales staff. With that, he estimates the total number of locations to be “at least 900.” The brand is also in some Walmart locations, primarily in Arizona and San Diego.
In the press release, AQUAhydrate also announced it has partnered with the Honickman Group to service distribution in the Mid-Atlantic region, which includes Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia.
“We are thrilled to have AQUAhydrate as part of the Honickman portfolio,” said John Taglienti, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Canada Dry Delaware Valley and Canada Dry Potomac Corp, in a statement. “Premium high pH water is an explosive category, and AQUAhydrate’s unique benefits make it perfectly poised to be a leader in the space.”
The Honickman Group partnership, which began in September, follows AQUAhydrate’s alignment in May with Europa Sports Products, which supplies more than 84,000 independent health clubs, gyms and nutrition stores including national chains such as Gold’s Gym and Equinox.
“[The Honickman Group has] filled a major distribution void for us,” Kravitz told BevNET of. “They came on board in late September, and come first of the year I think they are going to get more aggressive with it. The initial results have been fantastic for a limited launch.”
Even as the brand continues to make distribution gains, Kravitz said he plans to continue actively pushing AQUAhydrate into new regions and retail channels.
“We use what we call an ‘optimal route to market,’ where if we don’t have coverage in a given area — say, for example, in Wyoming, where we don’t have a distributor — we can get there by other means, either through a broad liner or direct to customer warehouse or through the third party of choice,” he said. “That strategy has fared very well for us and allowed us to continue to advance our distribution and not be hindered by a singularly focused route to market.”
In an interview at BevNET Live Winter 2016 in December, Kravitz also spoke about how AQUAhydrate’s high profile investor team of fitness guru Jillian Michaels, who was named Chief Wellness Officer of the brand in June, Wahlberg and Combs have recently taken a more prominent role in promoting the brand.
“In the last 12 months, we are using those assets to a much greater degree. We are using them at point-of-sale, on the sides and backs of trucks, they got on sales calls for us and they have made themselves very available, as has Jillian,” Kravitz said.
Both Wahlberg and Combs actively integrate the product into their own work: AQUAhydrate was featured in Wahlberg’s films “Deepwater Horizon” and “Transformers: Age of Extinction”, while Combs brought the water on tour this summer, placing bottles on stage during his performance.
Kravitz emphasized the importance of continuing to educate consumers on the brand’s unique qualities amongst the increasingly competitive category of premium, high pH water. The dual proposition of high electrolyte content and elevated alkalinity is central to the AQUAHydrate’s social media and advertising messaging, but traditional sampling demos remain a core element of customer outreach. In 2016, the company hosted sampling events in nine markets, up from six the previous year, and handed out 700,000 bottles..
“It’s educating customers on the category — not just AQUAhydrate, but there are six, seven or eight viable players,” Kravitz said. “It’s about expanding that space and educating consumers through your point-of-sale, consumer communication and digital and social media. As the category gets bigger, we are going to find ourselves with more and more space.”