re-use and then recycle…

The Gunwharf food festival was fun on Saturday and I met some ‘old friends’ from last year when Hagar and I shared a stand with a funky mini.

It’s amazing to see how my encouragement for people to re-use and recycle their empty Aquapax has really taken off – particularly the re-use aspect. A number of people report now buying Aquapax as much for the smart looking disposable container as for the award winning natural mineral water quality inside.

The way they see it; their kids are already losing the expensive refillable nalgene bottles at school, whereas giving them a fresh Aquapax each week works just as well and if they do lose it (or jump on it for the loud bang noise) it’s no big deal. One chap remarked that his kids take theirs to school re-filled with tap water (tap water in the fridge overnight tends to lose its chlorine taste) and he takes his empty Aquapax re-filled with something a little stronger to various sporting events he attends.

The (unofficial) record for refilling an empty Aquapax used to be held by a student at Sussex Uni who used hers for a reported 2 months. I thought that took eco-consciousness to another level, but then we heard from a father and son who’ve used their Aquapax cartons for a whole year, refilling them whenever they go fishing so they can still have a reasonably cool drink at the end of their day. 

With this level of eco-frugality, I can see we’re going to have to open some new markets to ensure we have a sustainable business model… On that note, we’ve finally found a distributor to deliver Aquapax to your home within London (minimum 2 cases = 48 units per delivery). That complements the established delivery system for Aquapax original through Ideal World TV (which links from the column on the right) – I know that doesn’t help if you want our new design Aquapax and live outside of London, but at least it’s a start.  More details to follow as we get the order / delivery system working seamlessly 🙂

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a working weekend…

7 day weeks are no fun anymore. The Sussex Show was busy enough (although not as busy as last year) and working with my son on father’s day was a reward in itself; but my feet hurt a great deal more than they ever have in the past and beating the break even point at around 4:30 on Sunday afternoon hardly made me smile.

Maybe it’s a simple draining of energy because I’ve always believed how old you are is not as important as how you are old. 😉 Certainly working with my son taught me a few things about myself this weekend and admitting I’m wrong (now and then) is my own modest way of showing I’m becoming wiser with the passage of time.

There was, as always, one potential ‘ace’ contact from the weekend and it proves my adage to treat every customer with respect and the ‘enthusiasm’ as if they were your first and only customer that day. Whether or not anything comes of this particular ‘ace’ is down to the follow up meeting we’ve scheduled for next week, but my intuition is strong that Aquapax on ‘prime time’ is drawing nearer and maybe ‘Robert’ will be a catalyst to help lead us there.

With hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t sign-up to do Glastonbury this year. I know the weather forecast is better than they’ve had in my recent memory, but there are times when one has to accept that 5 days of work by day and party by night is a tough gig! 

Besides that, now Aquapax is being enjoyed equally by the illustrious world champion England cricket team and by the beautiful people at the prestigious St. Tropez Polo Club, maybe it’s time my weekend sleeping arrangements were upgraded from a tent…

wonderful cricket players drink wonderful water

 

Beautiful people drinking beautiful water in a beautiful setting

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drink fresh, drink pure…

…the message is finally getting through and we took so many questions in the food hall yesterday, it was marvelous.

Of course it’s logical that sealing a wonderfully pure mineral water in light free and airtight conditions will keep the water taste absolutely fresh, but when people ‘get it’ and you can physically see their lights turning on, it’s still a great moment for me.

There will always be a majority who stand on the edge and listen to the science, before walking off with the biggest ad budget brand selection, but we never set out our stall to take over the entire market.

It’s pretty simple really; light and oxygen are a catalyst for microbial growth and Aquapax is sealed in light free, airtight, sterile (aseptic) conditions; that’s why it tastes so wonderfully pure and fresh!  It’s also pretty simple that refilling an empty Aquapax with tap water and popping it in the fridge overnight will give you a nice cold portable water for the next day; that’s down to the thermal properties of the paper carton. – never thought I’d end up as a science teacher.

For the lady who carried off a whole case of 24 Aquapax along with the rest of her shopping, you’re a legend and I hope your kids appreciate the effort you made to help them ‘drink fresh’! 🙂

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questions and answers…

We’re constantly getting e-mails and customer calls regarding why Aquapax is suitable for infants and why being sealed from light and air is a good thing for water.

At the other end of the spectrum, we’re bombarded with spam style e-mails about various minor league celebrities who’ve apparently got various cancers through drinking water in plastic bottles.

I can’t do a degree course in every subject of relevance to every question we get, but I can urge folk to ‘think inside the box’. When we registered this particular trademark, the intention was to get people thinking about the ingredients in a beverage product rather than glancing at the seductive marketing messages on the label.

Lot’s of products (particularly bottled water) claim to be pure or have some miraculously healthy healing property, but read the ingredient list and make up your own mind. NO3 and NO2 are both nitrates (aka chemical fertilizers) not to be confused with Na which is the chemical symbol for sodium (aka salt when combined with Cl which is chloride).

It’s my strongly held personal opinion that nitrates (chemical fertilizers) really shouldn’t be in any water calling itself ‘pure’ and I question why anyone pays good money for something that’s anything less than absolutely pure.

You do the research or type into the search box above [mineral water and infants] to get more facts and data if this is an issue for you. Otherwise simply take note that Aquapax is a naturally pure mineral water which contains less than 0.3mg/l of NO3 and less than 0.005mg/l NO2.

This fact allied to our generally low mineral content (275 parts per million TDS) and near perfect 7.1pH and a package of proven value which protects the water integrity from any form of leaching, even when soaked in diesel – read the analytical report in the down load area above –  is why Aquapax is suitable for infants.

Remember to read the label and make up your own mind; or  ‘think inside the box’ and buy Aquapax if you’re a bottled water fan.  Have a wonderful Friday, wherever you are! 🙂

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free video of home… (time limited)

For anyone who has ever admired anything of beauty in this wonderful planet we live on; you have until 14 June to watch this spectacularly well shot video on you tube free of charge… high praise from this particular fan!

I’m not trying to pitch Aquapax as a potential saviour in light of the mass of humanity and the destruction we heap on the earth every day. Fact is, it’s all about carbon and a carton has a lower carbon footprint than every other one-way beverage package option.

Every little helps as a sometimes hypocritical retailer is fond of publicising. Please tell your friends…

http://www.youtube.com/homeproject

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environment day / eco fair

It was world environment day on Friday and this coincided with the Burgess Hill eco-fair at St. John’s park today. I know the 2 are hardly in the same league, but the sentiment is certainly in the same arena.

This was the second eco-fair in St. John’s park, with the first being 2 years ago when the heavens opened and everyone got thoroughly soaked. Last year it moved over to Horsham, which was a pretty good success (ignoring the big beer tent selling equally big beer brands and traditional plastic bottled water) and today was an equal success as the weather defied the forecasters to remain wonderfully bright all day.

Lot’s of seemingly genuine ecologically sensitive/sensible people in attendance and who knows what the longer term outcome is in terms of their engagement with their traditional retailers? We shared a stand with the Transition Towns Team for Haywards Heath and despite a few issues with their tent instructions, I had a pretty good time all things considered.

Big week ahead, so not much time expected in the office – doesn’t time go quickly when you keep a full diary – I should be getting used to it by now, but it still seems almost surreal… A bit like blogs and twitters really (see my tweets on the right) but I try not to dwell too deeply on that or I might go down a strange road trying to figure out the condron business model… Too many years in corporate life you see 🙂

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