Recently, we talked to Gustav F. Felix about opportunities, threats and the development of the European Watercooler Industry. Passionate and kind, Felix answered all our questions with efficiency and speaking out plainly. Above all he is proud of the achievements of this relatively young industry in regard to consumer safety and environment protection.

• WE

  The U.S. are installing hydration stations in colleges so the students can refill their bottles… We think it is an important issue to discuss, what is your opinion about this situation?

• Gustav F. Felix

  No question that hydration at all ages is an important issue. What happens now in the US was already successfully promoted 2 years ago in Germany. As you know, I’m also managing the German Watercooler Association, and in Germany we have been talking with the government about supporting the initiative of hydration in schools and kindergartens for quite some time. The German Association received full understanding and support to promote watercoolers as one helping tool against obesity of children. We all are aware that youngsters would rather prefer to buy soft drinks unless they can get water free of charge, as from watercoolers. All the leading parties of the German Government confirmed that watercoolers should be installed in every kindergarten and in every school. Similar steps were taken already in UK. So we do not have to go to the US to learn about hydration, we did this successfully before, even if the watercooler industry in the US has a much longer history.

• WE

  WE just had the 2011 Trade Fair in Ukraine. How long would it take to have a similar hydration program in Eastern European Countries?

• Gustav F. Felix

  I think hydration is an easy step for health and against obesity and that is not so difficult to be recognized everywhere in the world when drinking water is made available. And, the issue is how fast can it be implemented? The whole process needs to be supported by the governments, the kindergartens, schools and parents. The tendency of obesity starting from childhood is an international concern.The problem can not be solved by only trying to stop people drinking soft drinks or other beverages with plenty of calories. We know that without proper hydration working and intellectual capacities are decreased; if the body doesn’t have enough water it does not work correctly. The solution, although water hydration doesn’t have as many calories as soft drinks, is that there should be a balance between intake of water and soft drinks, which are not bad themselves. It is only a question of getting enough liquids without increasing the calories intake. According to EFSA (European Food & Safety Authority) 2 liters/day are considered adequate for women and 2,5 liters for men. The children should get at least 1,8 liters/day.

• WE

  Is German initiative an exception?

• Gustav F. Felix

  WE Association brings the message from Germany to all other European countries and we expect that other countries and governments will follow. Education about hydration has to begin from childhood…

• WE

  From your point of view, what is important for the industry?Misunderstanding the hygienic matters of the water is a big threat. Water is food, water is a vital product and WE educates all its members how to take care of hygienic matters properly. The watercoolers need to be cleaned and sanitized according to the Code of Good Hygienic Practice which is registered in Brussels and all WE-Members have to comply with it. Every watercooler needs at least a full cleaning and sanitation twice a year although we do recommend this process to be done four times a year. Our members are undergoing an auditing process every year done by international recognized institutes. Unfortunately the companies not being members of a National Association or of the European Association are not under our education and control.We expect that growing inside our European Association, every country could understand that this is a necessary process and a must for maintaining a high level of consumer’s protection. 18 National associations are now part of WE-Watercoolers Europe.

• WE

  How does this industry comply with the environment concerns?

• Gustav F. Felix

  The water footprint for producing bottled water is one of the lowest, e.g. to produce 1 liter of bottled drinking water only 1,5 liters of water are needed, compared to 75 liters for a bottle of bier or to 140 liters to have a cup of coffee or to 250 liters consumption for a glass of milk. Even so the industry is taking the environmental issue very serious and is constantly looking for alternatives with less consumption of oil, and natural resources.Regarding the carbon footprint, the bottles supplied for watercoolers are refillable, reusable and recyclable. Being refillable up to 50 times a single bottle can carry approx. 1000 liters which is replacing e.g. thousand small bottles of PET. From this point of view, Watercooler Industry could be considered as very environmentally friendly. We continuously pay a lot of attention to the environment and work hard to identify and implement adequate solutions.

• WE

  What can you tell us about WE new communication strategy, the change of the brand name…

• Gustav F. Felix

  The re-branding process with the new name followed the strategic development of the industry. When the association was established in 1993, 100% of the industry was represented through bottled water coolers. The development of the industry as a service industry for hydration and wellness moved also towards to the use of coolers connected to the water supply, so called Point of Use. We see that both systems coexist well and that there is a continuous demand for both types, BWC (Bottled Water Coolers) and POU (Point of Use). In the last years we found out that the largest part of our members started to supply both alternatives and left the final decision to their customers. With our former name EBWA (European Bottled Watercooler Association) it was not clear that that we protect the interests of the entire industry. A name change became essential and unavoidable. Together with the name change we launched a new Website and put a lot of resources in the internal and external communication. Now the information will reach all our members directly at the same time as it does for all WE-National Associations.

• WE

  What about the communication with the European Commission?

• Gustav F. Felix

  One major target of WE-Association is to represent the industry at the European Commission in Brussels. This means that we have to follow up on all Legislations relevant for our products and services starting from all existing water regulations, via materials in contact with food, energy consumption, safety up to hygiene and consumers’ protection. At the same time WE also monitors very closed the situation in different European countries and helps its National Associations in case of local regulations that would not comply with European accepted standards. There are cases where due to our work in Brussels the one or the other European country had to drop or change their local regulations which would have otherwise affected negative the work of our industry. This is an important aspect of the work done by WE to protect the interests of the entire watercooler industry.

Past interviews

• 

  Derek Callaghan

  Director of Sales & Marketing for SIP Technologies LLC

• 

  Jeroen Peters

  WE's Chairman

• 

  Diane Koyich

  International Liaison for Crystal Mountain