Bottled water business: economy slows sales, hurricane season picks them up again

C onstruction workers are probably as thirsty as they've ever been in Southwest Florida. But in

PHOTO EVAN WILLIAMS FLORIDA WEEKLY Aqua Systems owner Randy Keim totes 5-gallon water bottles for a customer. Hurricane season can be a boon for water companies already suffering from high delivery costs. the wake of recent slowdowns

in the building industry and higher unemployment rates, there are not as many whistles to wet.

Some companies which used to deliver hundreds of gallons of bottled, purified water per day to thirsty builders are absorbing the losses. Aqua Systems - a national company which also sells and maintains water purification systems - made about 16 large water deliveries per day to building industry sites in the region two years ago. Now they make about one daily, according to owners Randy and Jeff Keim.

"We're still profitable but business is down a lot," Randy Keim said. "Revenues are down."

The brothers took a place in the $5 billion per year bottled water industry when they opened the Fort Myers location of Aqua Systems seven years ago. The company's trucks still carry 1-liter, 3 and 5-gallon jugs to about 200 homes and businesses per day

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTO Aqua Systems also sells purification systems. in Lee, Charlotte and Collier County; but

many of those are smaller deliveries.

And the price of gas is lowering profit margins, too. Keim added a $2

delivery charge starting May 1 to offset

the costs, after he started paying

$4.70 for a gallon of diesel fuel.

Fortunately, the start of Hurricane

Season on June 1 is pushing profits up 10 to 15 percent, as customers order a few extra bottles to save in case of an emergency, or just come pick them up at the drive-thru. Last week, Randy Keim ordered 400 empty 5-gallon jugs in anticipation. Those will help replace 900 5-gallon bottles of water waiting in his warehouse now.

"By next Wednesday they'll all be empty," he said (by the time this paper is on the stand).

If there is a Hurricane warning, or even notice of a tropical depression, bottled water sales rise dramatically, Keim said. On an average day 500 gallons are sold; and they sold over 10,000 gallons in the two days prior to Hurricane Charley in 2004.

"When Charley came through we had cars lined up two wide at the drive-thru out and down the street," he said. "We ran out of water the night before Charley and we had another delivery come in at 9 p.m. at night."

Randy Keim recalled those days before and after the storm: unloading the water directly from a semi-truck into people's waiting cars until 11 p.m. the night before, and coming back the morning before to sell more. The next day, as crews began to survey the damage, he took water to nursing homes and health care centers in Charlotte County, where the storm hit hardest.

Now, to keep their investment safer, the Keims have it bottled at a plant in Silver Springs, as far as possible from damaging winds and storm surge.

"I choose not to bottle our water locally," he said. "If Florida's hit by a Hurricane, it's least likely to be affected."

But it's been a while since Charley, and the Keim brother's are counting on more than the threat of an unlikely water emergency to keep business afloat. One customer, who came through the drive-thru to pick up 10 gallons, said the choice was simply about taste.

"I don't like the taste of the chlorine and I have two kids," Fort Myers resident Michaela Sertler said. "I don't think it's healthy for them to drink the chlorine."

The city's water is purified with chlorine, which is unpalatable to some; and those who use a well often find their water smells of sulfur. That's why many also choose to purchase the company's water purification systems, Keim said. One of the most popular units, called the SmartChoice Eradicator, has sold upwards of 55,000 units in the region.

The basic system, which costs about $1,500, was patented last November and can remove iron and sulfur from the water. It's also been a choice for consumers who have had problems with salt water seeping into their wells.

"You have purified water everywhere in the house," Keim said. "It's the best quality of water someone can get, from a treatment standpoint. And these are becoming more popular because of saltwater intrusion."

The Eradicator and other Aqua System products, can replace the more common aerator and holding tank, which Randy Keim said is more subject to bacteria and less energy efficient because it uses two pumps instead of one.

For those who just want the bottled water, there are three kinds: distilled, spring water, and water purified by reverse osmosis. The difference between the three is also mostly a matter of taste.

"There's some schools of thought that distilled is the best for you, and some that it isn't the best," Keim said. "I've had plenty of health professionals tell me you're not dependant on getting all your minerals from water. Some people say you can taste the minerals and it tastes a little earthy."

Whether it's taste, the economy, gas prices, or hurricane season that's effecting business, Randy Keim said some things stay the same every year. It's still busiest during winter season, when the snowbirds are here. But the summer has its own rising profit margins. "In the wintertime people drink less water because it's cooler; in the summertime there are less people here but it's hotter."