PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2016

BOTTLING / FILLING 34 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 10/16 www.petpla.net SPONSORS The China Road Show F.l.t.r.: Michael Chen, Managing Director of Bericap China and Alexander Büchler, PET- planet Insider in front of the Editourmobil rPET for purified water By Kay Barton August 3, 2016, A.S. Watson Group, Watsons Water We met: Mr Kim Siu, General Manager Marketing Ms Tracy Yuen, Brand Manager “What many people don’t know is that, in historical terms, the company actually started in Guangzhou in the year 1828 as a pharmaceuticals busi- ness, before moving to Hong Kong in 1841,” says Kim Siu, launching the discussion. He has been at the company for four years, since join- ing from Coca-Cola. “Hong Kong is often thought to be where the com- pany started life, but its history goes back quite a lot further. And another thing a lot of people don’t know is that it began manufacturing its first beverages in 1875.” The company was founded in 1828 by Dr Alexan- der Skirving Watson, who wanted to be able to provide poor people with good quality, hygienic and medi- cally safe water. He began distilling water for this purpose. After moving from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, the year 1875 saw the initial bottling of six differ nt CSD drinks. Sinc 1903, A.S. Watson has focused exclusively on the commercialisation of purified water. Over over the following dec- ades, the product - then sold in glass bottles - gained a firm local foothold. The glass bottles were superseded in 1977, with the company progress- ing subsequently to the production of PET bottles. In 1981, A.S. Watson became a subsidiary of the CK Hutch- ison Holdings, which serves a variety of market segments, including retail. With the A.S. Watson Group and the internationally acknowledged Watson Stores, it is now the biggest Health & Beauty retailer in the world. Its first PET bottling system began operating at the Hong Kong facility in 1989. The first factory for carboy production opened in Beijing, in 1994; production has been in PET since 2012. The year 1996 saw the open- ing, in Guangzhou – the company’s original home – of another plant for can filling of CSD and tea. The three locations serve the local market as well as Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines and the The Tai Po Industrial Estate in Hong Kong is home to the current headquarters of Watsons Water, a leading interna- tional water brand, which is part of the A.S. Watson Group, itself part of CK Hutchison Holdings. The water bottling busi- ness has a history stretching back nearly 200 years and now holds one of the biggest market shares in the purified water segment. As part of the China Road Show Tour I met with Kim Siu, General Manager Marketing, and talked about the company’s roots and philosophy, its impact on the mar- kets in Hong Kong and China, and the ideas and trends of both today and tomorrow. General Manager Kim Siu in front of Watsons Water’s entrance area