2024-05-07 10:16:00
The famous brand Perrier (Nestlé group) is going through a zone of turbulence. The prefect Gard formally notified the company to “immediately suspend” the operation of one of its water catchments on the site that produces Perrier, in Vergèze, near Nîmes, in a decree dated April 19. It is indicated that this catchment area showed “an episode of contamination from March 10, 2024 and over several days by germs that could see faecal contamination”, type E. coli. As a precaution, two million bottles had to be destroyed.
If Perrier wants to be positive and confirms that no contaminated bottles have been found in circulation in supermarkets or in the Horeca sector, this does nothing less than tarnish its image. And if Perrier operates other collection sites, the closure of the Vergèze site will certainly affect its production. And it seems the difficulties are far from limited to this episode. Because if Perrier aimed, in 2010, to produce 2 billion bottles per year, this objective will only be achieved at the cost of breaching the regulations on French mineral waters. An investigation by Le Monde and FranceInfo last January revealed that Nestlé admitted prohibited purification practices. Although it is confirmed that these practices will be discontinued in 2021. Which is not without consequences since the production, in Vergèze, fell from 1.7 to 1.2 billion bottles between 2021 and 2023.
After several restructurings in recent years and facing the difficulties of producing many bottles of Perrier, the company decided to change strategy. Nestlé will invest 50 million to develop the production of energy drinks and flavored drinks, which are less restrictive in terms of composition. Enough to bring color back to Perrier, which increased its turnover in France from 223 million to 150 million euros between 2018 and 2023, according to Le Figaro. Hoping for Perrier’s crazy success again.
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