Beverage trend pours splash with flash

Robert Hansen, a buyer for the Treasure Island food stores, standsbefore the bottled-beverage shelves flooded, if you will, withchoices.

Each time he turns around, he says, it seems another half-dozenentries are on the market. Splashing over the rocks during Chicagosocial hours, plain or with a twist, is the centuries-old beveragethat has whetted the market in the past five years: water.

"I know each time I go to buy there will be more and morewaters," says Hansen. "It can drive you crazy. First it was Perrier.Now it is Perrier with orange, lemon, lime. The rest are makingflavors. It will be like the soft drink industry and the names ofall the imports."

Sipping a glass of mineral or sparkling water in place of acocktail today is considered smart. Americans' attitudes toward dietand exercise, fear of public drinking water and tougher drunkendriving laws have helped create a demand for the 35 imported and 400domestic brands of bottled water on the market today, says WilliamDeal, executive vice president of the International Bottled WaterAssociation in Alexandria, Va.

Everyplace from the corner tavern to Champagne bars such asPops for Champagne, 2934 N. Sheffield, are stacking waters alongsidethe beers on the wall. Mineral waters are being used as mixers or asaperitifs and often cost as much as cocktails.

Recognizing the lure of the industry, such companies asAnheuser-Busch are joining the frey; the brewer recently purchasedCalifornia's Saratoga mineral water. AB Volvo is heavily marketingRamlosa, its popular Swedish water from a 300-year-old spa, in theUnited States using tennis star Bjorn Borg as spokesperson.

On a percentage basis, the bottled-water market shows thebiggest consumption increase of all beverage categories, includingsoft drinks.

According to New York's Beverage Marketing Corp., a marketingconsulting firm, last year 1.2 billion gallons of bottled water - notcounting tonic and seltzer - was sold in the United States, anincrease of 13.5 percent over 1984. Illinois was the fifth largestmarket for mineral water, consuming 37.5 million gallons. Thebiggest growth was in imports; today waters are imported from Italy,France, West Germany, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Switzerland, to namejust a few countries.

By 1990, the market is expected to increase 10.5 percent yearlyin gallon sales; between 1990 and 1995 market growth is expected tolevel off at 7.2 percent a year.

Non-sparkling domestic waters are the largest sellers in theUnited States, at 900 million gallons, with imported sparkling andnon-sparkling selling 30 million gallons yearly.

Ten years ago, the American market for bottled waters wasvirtually a desert. Sales were stagnant, with domestic brandsholding their share. Then in 1976 came something the French callPerrier - an entry that made more than a ripple. It sparked both thedomestic and imported bottled water markets, Americans bought by thecase and new competition flourished.

The sale of domestic waters, including the oldest manufacturedin the United States, Mountain Valley, increased, too. Perrier isstill the top-selling sparkling mineral water in the United Statesand, along with other bottlers, is taking on the soft drink marketwith its expansion into flavored waters.

Water is flooding the American market much like wine did, saysRobert Reider, executive vice president and chief operating officerof Taylor Food Products Inc., which is distributing Ramlosa in theUnited States.

"Perrier helped boost all segments of the industry," saysReider. "After the French entry the term bottled water became a newword in the vocabulary, even though it has been around in the U.S. for 150 years."

At Treasure Island, naturally sparkling Perrier and Evian, astill mineral water from France, are the largest sellers, Hansonsays. Both are the biggest sellers in their categories nationally.

Brand names abound. France's Contrexeville, Vichy, Vittel;West Germay's Apollinaris and Black Forest; Italy's San Pellegrinoand Fiuggi; Yugoslavia's Radenska.

Bottled waters vary in type and content (see accompanyingglossary), and sorting them out can be confusing. Almost all waters naturally contain sodium, althoughPerrier, Canfield and others sell salt-free sparkling waters andseltzers.

Tipping a bottled water during lunch, the cocktail hour or atthe symphony won't be just another fly-by-night trend, say BeverageMarketing executives. The tradition that began in the regal spas ofEurope will hold fast in the United States as the concern over goodhealth continues.

Although it doesn't yet reign, it pours.