A first glimpse of Italian water
Just under two hours south-west of Turin in Italy, at the foot of the Maritime Alps and close to the French border in the province of Cuneo, alpine water finds its way into PET bottles. Sant’ Anna, as the water bottler is called, is a family business ‘with a heart and soul’ as its President and CEO Alberto Bertone himself describes it. Despite only being in existence for a short time compared to many long-established bottlers – the factory only started operating in 1996 – the company has achieved national and international recognition over the years. Sant’ Anna has managed to hold its own in a fiercely contested and fragmented Italian water market with an estimated 300+ brands and currently produces 1.5 billion bottles annually.
The Sant’ Anna brand is available without carbonation, with medium and regular carbonation. In addition to water beverages, RTD tea drinks (SanThè) with and without added sugar have been produced since 2012 in lemon, peach and green tea flavours. Also part of the company’s drinks portfolio since 2019 are two speciality products: functional water with added collagen and zinc and a dietary supplement (Sant’ Anna Beauty) with hyaluronic acid and zinc. Finally in 2020, flavoured water (Fruity Touch) was introduced and is available in lemon, red fruits and lime-ginger-guarana flavours. The bottles come in 0.10 l, 0.25 l, 0,33 l, 0.35 l, 0.5 l, 0.75 l, 1.5 l and 2 l sizes, the short-neck preforms freature 22/25 mm for still and 22/26 mm neck finishes for carbonated products.
The water sources rise at a high alpine level of 1,950 m, have low mineral content (22 mg/l) and contain hardly any sodium (1.5 mg/l). Of all the available sizes, 96% are made from PET and the remainder from rPET with 30% recycled content, PLA and PS EVOH PE, used for cup production. Sant’ Anna employs 200 staff in a work place of around 80,000 m2. The 2020-2021 annual turnover was close to US$ 390 million, with year-on-year growth of 10%.
In the long term, the company plans to acquire other bottlers both inside and outside Italy.
Looking at the domestic maket the company said that PET was the primary driver behind the 4.7% growth in the non-alcohol beverage sector in 2021 and that the mineral water market in particular, which accounted for more than 81% of volume of all beverages, was growing steadily. The main packaging consisted of 1.5 l and 2 l PET bottles. “We are seeing a marked increase in ergonomic formats and larger containers in all sizes”, said Mr Bertone.
Yours
Kay Barton
Editor
