Eco boost a bottler of an idea
A GOLD Coast eco start-up company that sells spring water is chasing up to $12 million from investors as it wages a hi-tech war on plastic water bottles.
Water3, launched by former beverage industry executive Damien Stone, has set out to discourage people from using bottles once and throwing them away.
The Ormeau-based business is rolling out a network of technology-smart kiosks that fill Water3 bottles and others with still, chilled or sparkling water, starting at $1 a time.
The kiosks, designed inhouse, use water from Mt Tamborine and have been installed at major Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast shopping centres, including Pacific Fair and the Robina Town Centre.
The company’s goal is to create a national network of 12,000 kiosks over three years.
Its aim this year is to establish 2100 cashless kiosks, which each hold 800 litres, across southeast Queensland and in Sydney. Of them, 1500 will be owned by Water3 and 600 are being offered to investors.
Water3 general manager of investments David Mason said the kiosks were being offered at $20,000 each and would be bought back at that price after five years, or sooner if an owner wanted to exit.
Investors will be paid $2400 a year, a 12 per cent return, in monthly instalments.
“A sinking fund, independent of Water3, has been set up to cover the buybacks and will be administered by an international accounting firm’s Singapore office,” Mr Mason said.
“We will be by far the biggest owner, so we will have an earnings multiple that will easily cover interest and principal payments.
“You could call the springwater kiosks ‘liquid’ investments. Owners can sell them back within the five years should they need to.’’
Mr Mason said Water3 was campaigning for environmental change through innovation.
“We are out to eliminate the need for single-use plastic water bottles and will use revenue to fund clean-up initiatives in southeast Queensland and elsewhere, such as the Whitsundays eco barge and Airlie Beach Turtle Rescue Centre.”
Water3 is offering refillable stainless-steel bottles, for purchase at the kiosks, that employ radiofrequency technology and embedded tags to enable customers to store credits. People using other bottles can pay at the kiosks with credit or debit cards.
Mr Stone has worked in global branding roles for CocaCola, Schweppes and Lion Nathan.
He said the amount of waste created by discarded used-once plastic bottles was a problem virtually everywhere.
“It’s a global epidemic. I hope that Water3 will be one way of ingraining the problem into the social conscience of the community,” he said.