Water is heavy, cheap and flows from kitchen taps—not
exactly the first thing you'd consider putting on your online
shopping list, right?
Well, it's more popular than you might think.
Nestlé SA says its U.S. water home-delivery business
grew twice as fast as shipments to brick-and-mortar stores last
year. In the first quarter of this year, it grew three times
faster, and Nestlé expects the momentum to continue.
For decades, trucks have dropped off five-gallon, 40-pound jugs
for water coolers to houses and offices, typically at regular
intervals through subscriptions. Customers received monthly bills
by mail. Then sales stalled during the recession.
Now Nestlé says it's getting a big lift from
customized Web orders for its still and sparkling water brands,
including Poland Springs, Perrier and Pure Life, after it spent
millions of dollars upgrading software. The company began offering
a broader packaging mix, including half-liter bottles, a couple of
years ago. Since last year, online consumers also could make
one-time orders, with delivery within 24 hours.
Shoppers increasingly are ordering everything from diapers to
wine online. When it comes to water, some don't like how it tastes
from the tap and don't want to carry something heavy from a store.
Now they don't even have to lift a five-gallon jug in their house,
and can change orders on the fly.
"The world is going this way," said Tim Brown, president of
Nestlé Waters North America. "It's the convenience
factor.''
Some consumers appear willing to pay for that convenience.
Nestlé says its home-delivery business has avoided
increasing competition in stores, where prices for bottled water
have been falling in recent years as private-label brands
proliferate. It says customers typically pay $6 to $7 for a case of
24 half-liter bottles delivered to their homes, compared with $5
and less in stores.
Families, not single-person households, are doing most of the
buying when it comes to home delivery, said Mr. Brown, who
estimates U.S. household penetration of delivered water is only
about 2%. Bottled water makers are benefiting from consumers
avoiding soda, whose U.S. sales volumes have declined 10 straight
years amid health and obesity concerns.
The Swiss company's delivery business, roughly split between 1.5
million homes and offices, represented about 20% of its $4 billion
in U.S. water sales last year.
Nestlé says its water sales to U.S. homes and small
businesses rose 14% in volume terms in 2014, compared with 7.8% at
stores. In the first quarter of this year, the company says its
direct-to-consumer shipments increased nearly 21%, compared with
5.5% at retail outlets.
Other companies see the same opportunity. Private-label soda
maker Cott Corp. last December acquired DS Services of America
Inc., which delivers water via its water.com site, for $1.25
billion including debt. Consumers on Costco.com can have an entire
pallet—1,872 half-liter bottles—of Pure Life
water delivered to their homes for $489.99, if they live on the
first floor.
Coca-Cola Co.'s Dasani and PepsiCo Inc.'s Aquafina water brands
are sold on Amazon.com. Fiji Water Company LLC, which has been
delivering water from a remote South Pacific island to U.S. stores
for years, also offers home delivery. Its website offers shipping a
36-pack of 330-milliliter bottles for $47.50.
Nestlé has an advantage because it's the biggest
seller of bottled water in the U.S., with an estimated 34.9% share
of the $13 billion market at wholesale prices. It also controls
about a third of the $1.6 billion home-delivery market, with DS
Services a close second, estimates industry tracker Beverage
Marketing Corp.
The company owns a fleet of 2,000 delivery trucks for homes and
offices reaching 60% of the U.S. population. Drivers track orders
with hand-held devices and make about 50 deliveries a day. The
average order is about $35, with roughly 20% of that for shipping
costs. Orders carry a $20 minimum.
Not everyone is convinced this is the wave of the future for
water.
"I don't think water for hydration to keep us alive is going to
be delivered by UPS or Amazon,'' said Tom Pirko, managing director
at Bevmark and a longtime beverage industry consultant.
Michael Bellas, chief executive at Beverage Marketing, expects
single-serve bottles bought outside the home to continue to be the
biggest driver of industry growth over the next few years. But he
also sees potential for companies like Nestlé and DS
Services that have built large customer bases from years of
delivering five-gallon jugs.
"They already have entry into the home and the idea is to
leverage that. It's a service business," said Mr. Bellas.
Write to Mike Esterl at mike.esterl@wsj.com
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