A spokesman for Coca-Cola, which has been involved in production for 23 years, said the company would try to find jobs for the 17 full-time staff at the site who will otherwise be made redundant. “This has been a very tough decision for us to take, particularly given the hard work and commitment shown by our staff at Malvern.
“We cannot produce enough Malvern Water on the scale it needs to compete in today’s bottled water sector. Modern bottled water plants are about 10 times the size of Colwall and can often produce more water in a day than we do in a month. That’s why Malvern Water costs more to produce and why a two-litre bottle in the supermarket sells for as little as 68 pence. The size of our site – plus the amount of water we can actually extract – means Malvern is expensive to produce and cannot compete on price.”
Malvern has only ever had 1% of total bottled water sales in the UK in the past 10 years.
“Over the past five years, we have placed Malvern in our vending machines in UK airports, pursued new contracts and invested in the Colwall plant. But we simply can’t change the size of the plant, or extract the volume of water needed, for Malvern to compete in today’s highly competitive bottled water sector,” said a spokesman.
The site is due to close at the beginning of November and Coca-Cola plans to sell the site for residential use, rather than industrial.
“We have been part of the community in Colwall for 23 years and know that local residents do not want to see heavy industry move onto the site, with all the noise and congestion issues that might bring. To respect those concerns, we will be selling the site for residential development only,” said a spokesman.
Local reaction
The news was greeted with shock in Malvern. Paul Tuthill, a district councillor and chairman of Malvern Town Council, said: “This is a great shock. What is the Queen going to do about her water because she always drank Malvern Water? I think Coca-Cola ought to offer it for sale to local entrepreneurs to take it over rather than just sell the site for high value housing.”
Roger Sutton, chairman of Malvern Civic Society, said: “It has not been pure Malvern Water for around two years. Coca-Cola has been filtering the water for some time. It is serious that 17 people have lost their jobs but the writing has been on the wall for some time.”
Rhys Humm, company director of Holywell Spring Water, based in Malvern Wells, which bottles water from the Holywell which has been used since 1558, said he hoped the Queen would now switch to their company’s brand.
He said: “We will be in contact with the Queen very shortly. She can expect a letter from me in the next few days. We have aimed very much for the top end of the market like Michelin star restaurants.”
A spokesman for Buckingham Palace said: “We would not be able to comment on what the Queen does and doesn’t like.”
Source: Malvern Gazette/Worcester News/Stourbridge News/Coca-Cola Great Britain
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