2023-05-25 08:24:54
The Girona water company of Sant Aniol vol expand into the Middle East this 2023, strengthening some of the exports that the company already has in countries such as Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. The general manager of the company, Andreu Galindo, has remarked that they are making contacts with distributors in these countries. At the moment, the brand is already present in one thirty countries from around the world such as Japan, the United States or the United Kingdom. Galindo has remarked that approximately 10% of the 52 million liters of water they produce annually are sent to other parts of the world, especially in the field of catering and hospitality. This 2023, Sant Aniol celebrates 30 years and does so with one turnover of 10 million euros.
In 2022 the water bottling company based in Sant Aniol de Finestres produced 52 million liters of water. Two-thirds of these bottles went to the hospitality industry, where Sant Aniol has a strong presence. In fact, for years this brand has decided to focus on restaurants because of the quality of the water it offers, since it is the only one in the entire Iberian Peninsula that has a volcanic origin.
The director general of Sant Aniol, Andreu Galindo, explained that the hospitality industry it is a strategic sector, but they also do not want to neglect the sale to households, since it represents 40% of the sales volume.
Even so, the hospitality market is particularly important because the majority of sales are glass bottles and it allows them to apply another of the company’s strategic lines: sustainability. Galindo recalled that Sant Aniol has a large volume of bottles that are returnable. When they arrive at the plant, they are cleaned and filled with water again and distributed again in the establishments.
Present in thirty countries
On the other hand, 10% of the production that has the water mark it is exported to several countries in the world. Galindo recalled that it is “uncommon” for a brand of water to sell in almost 30 countries, since it is usually a local resource and there is no market for selling water abroad. Despite everything, the fact that Sant Aniol extracts filtered water from the volcanoes in La Garrotxa gives it properties that are “very well valued” around the world and allows the water to position in different restaurants high-end from different parts of the world.
The director has remarked that some of the most important markets are the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan or South Korea. Even so, for a few years they have started to export to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Now, Sant Aniol is carrying out an “expansion strategy” which happens to strengthen the Middle East market.
To do this, the brand believes that it is necessary to highlight “the ‘premium’ water feature”, which will be one of the challenges that Galindo sets for this 2023. In this sense, it believes that the company must strengthen the brand based on the characteristics offered by volcanic water.
Guaranteed production
On the other hand, the company has guaranteed the production of bottled water for the next few years despite the drought. Andreu Galindo recalled that the water captured by Sant Aniol is “from long cycle and it has years to go.” Although the company has reduced water consumption by 5% due to the state of early warning due to drought, the general manager assures that the lack of rain it will not affect the 52 million liters of water they have for production.
In parallel to the drought, Sant Aniol is also facing increases in the price of the energy used by the plant. “We are receiving impacts on the costs that we have to transfer carefully in the prices”, added Andreu Galindo. The director is confident that the escalation of energy prices will slow down, but regrets that “starting from an incomparable base” with other years.
New packaging with less plastic
Within the sustainable aspect, Sant Aniol has started to distribute a new plastic bottle. The brand has taken the opportunity to update the design of the packaging but it is a “lighter and less plastic” bottle, which makes it “more sustainable”.
#Aigües #Sant #Aniol #expand #Middle #East