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ONCE upON A TImE…<br />
Laying the foundations<br />
This is the story of a company - our company<br />
- which was established with a clear purpose:<br />
to focus solely on the distinct and fascinating<br />
business of bottled water. Yet, in celebrating<br />
the achievements of these past 20 years, let<br />
us also look further back in time to trace<br />
the events that laid the foundations on which<br />
Nestlé <strong>Waters</strong> has been built.<br />
The first chapter opens on the picturesque<br />
north shores of Lake Geneva in Switzerland,<br />
back in 1843. Here, a young entrepreneur by<br />
the name of Henri Nestlé won a concession<br />
to draw water from a local spring and started<br />
to bottle and distribute mineral water,<br />
carbonated lemonades and sparkling water.<br />
Henri Nestlé’s lemonade and water bottling<br />
factory was the earliest avatar for what would<br />
eventually become the world’s leading bottled<br />
water company.<br />
06<br />
This initial foray into the bottled water sector was<br />
beaten back by tough economic times and competition<br />
from brewers who used their established distribution<br />
networks to sell imported bottled waters from<br />
Germany. Henri Nestlé withdrew from the sector<br />
to concentrate on other ventures. However, strong<br />
links with water remained key for Henri - and for the<br />
company he went on to found in his own name in 1867<br />
to market the powdered baby food that he had invented<br />
in response to infant malnutrition, widespread in<br />
Europe at that time.<br />
The mounting case<br />
for commitment<br />
Until the late 1960s, the company did not see a<br />
specific role for itself in the bottled water sector.<br />
Then, as the swinging sixties came to a close, it<br />
was clear that times - and consumer trends - were<br />
changing.
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