AquaPenn, a Pennsylvania spring-water company with national distribution, plans a public stock offering, the first by a water company in recent memory. The game is going to go to the low-cost producer that's regionally diversified, and the one that can put some marketing muscle behind these waters. It was only in 1984 that smaller bottles first appeared on store shelves, when wine coolers were all the rage. Profit margins are also higher on those bottles. The growth has come mainly at the expense of diet soda.
Water has nothing.
Being big, and having a distribution system, seem to be the keys. Some companies, like Great Brands of Europe, which owns Evian, Dannon and Volvic, and the Perrier Group, a unit of Nestle SA, have acquired a string of regional waters. Pepsi, a unit of Pepsico, is so far the only company marketing tap water, said Jennifer Levine, a spokeswoman for the International Bottled Water Association. Water sources must be licensed and monitored regularly by federal inspectors. There are both federal guidelines and stricter ones adopted by the International Bottled Water Association, all adopted within the last six years, Ms. Levine said.