Counterfeiting: Bottled Water Brands Fight the Battle of their Life - 2008-09-08

Water, they say, has no enemy. But the recent development in the booming bottled water industry in spite of massive repackaging of brands among major players, portrays water as an enemy. Ralph Tathagata takes a look at the bottled water market and doubts if the step can have serious impact.

Twenty-five years after the first bottled water (Swan) rolled out of the factory in Kerang, a cool, serene town in Mangu Local Government of Plateau State, the bottled water segment of the beverage industry has become one of the fastest growing segments in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) category in Nigerian market today.

Bottled water manufacturers have also gradually succeeded in changing the very way Nigerian consumers think about water. Potable water is no longer portrayed as an essential resource that flows directly from our taps in the cities and in some rural settings but could include natural origins like the volcanic highlands of Kerang hills and the Ikogosi warm springs among others.

Ironically, however, many bottled water brands actually come from the same sources that our public tap water ought to come from if things should go the normal way. Unfortunately, these thing most times are not normal. Therefore, these brands are sold back to the public at premium price.  Little wonder some consumers carry them as status symbols. It appears in this connection that bottled water marketing is all about convincing consumers that the only place to get drinkable water is from the bottle thereby encouraging the estranged political will of our politicians who have failed to adequately fund our public water system.

 “Never drink the water sold in plastic bags (sachets).It probably hasn't been boiled, and may carry some nasty diseases. Bottled water is safe”; the warning sounds to a foreigner who might be visiting Nigeria for the first time. The need therefore among other things to set up and operate bottled water business as one of the most profitable ventures is no longer in doubt. But the woe of this fast-growing business is the unprincipled shortcuts that are being taken to accomplish the entrepreneurial feat. 

 Nevertheless, the matter at issue is not the cost of bottled water in Nigeria but the whereabouts of millions of those consumed pet plastic bottles that used to wind up in landfills and trash cans. M2 investigations reveal that these bottles today find their ways back to some unwholesome places.    

 Until recently, Nigerians have been burying their assets without knowing it. What was perceived and dumped as scrap dramatically assumed the status of asset. Used cans and bottles are no longer one of those household items heading to the scrap heap. The increasing need for used items necessitated even a change in the definition of what used to be perceived as a demeaning profession known in some cities like Lagos as “Bowler Boys” and “Iya Onigos” (Scavengers).These set of people especially teenagers and some nomadic business women go from one scrap heap and household to another in search of abandoned items prominent among them, pet plastic bottles (mostly Eva), aluminum, among other items for the ostensible purpose of recycling.

 To the non initiates, recycling is a very simple concept: take something that is not useful anymore and make it into something new instead of just throwing it away. It can be anything from recycling old rubber shoes into new ones to “distilling a new gin in an old bottle”, or even refilling an empty pet bottle of water, corking it and packaging it for public consumption.

Objectively, genuine recycling can even get very complicated. According to experts, how it interacts with our environment, our politics, our economy and even our behavioral patterns will play a major role in the future of our planet.

 Recycling can take many forms. On a small scale, any time you find a new use for something old, you are recycling. But recycling becomes dangerous and criminal when consumer goods are collected, shoddily converted back into raw materials (or refilled and corked in the case of bottled water and insecticide) and remade into new consumer products mostly under the label, name and logo of the authentic manufacturer.  Aluminum cans, steel from old buildings and plastic containers are all examples of materials commonly recycled in large quantities (most times in slipshod manners) often through scavenging activities, encouraging both household and scrap heap collections. However, it has been observed that it is very rare even at the most advanced level, for a recycled product to be exactly the same as the original material from which it was recycled.

 Eva water is one of the bottled water brands that did not duly crawl before it began to walk and subsequently engaged its forerunners (Swan and Ragolis among others) in a market and pocket share race.  The brand has left virtually most of the competitors behind in terms of pan Nigerian market presence. This laudable but remarkable feat, many market experts reason should be ascribed to the tenacious and recalcitrant distribution strategy Coca Cola Nigeria applies in ensuring that its products get to even the remotest part of the country, no matter how dismal the road network might be. The argument being that subsequent to its introduction into the Nigerian market, Eva assumed almost the same status, riding the crest of other Coca Cola brands that had achieved household appeal because of mass distribution and marketing.

 In April 2002, to be precise, Eva bottled water was relaunched due to a cacophony of bottled water brands that glutted the Nigerian bottled water market. Again, one of the parent company's strategies to elevate the brand and bring it out of the pack. Eva was strategically re-launched and repositioned as the leading brand in the bottled water market. The bottle was redesigned with a new logo and a magnifying-plastic-design that gives the content (water) a sky blue water-ripple effect.

 Apparently, the major players in the industry are Coca Cola (Eva water), Spring Water Nigeria Limited; a subsidiary of UACN (SWAN bottled water), Ikogosi Bottling Water (Gossy water), Ragolis bottled water and Nestlé's Pure Life table water among others. UAC's Gossy and Swan bottled water brands are positioned as spring waters without additives such as chlorine and ozone treatment.  

Uniquely however, Eva bottled water after the Face of Eva Competition in 2005, is now positioned as a premium brand that caters for everyone irrespective of class in the Nigeria society. By the same token, Nestle Nigeria introduced a classic and most affordable size of its brand, Pure, which market experts opined at the time might ruffle feathers among sachet water (pure water) manufacturers given its affordability. Meanwhile, it had also been observed that Pure Life is not yet in control of the market in terms of shelf presence.

 However, the ongoing explosion in demand of bottled water in Nigeria has continued to attract at the moment, clandestine bottled water manufacturers who heedlessly churn out from the sleaziest environment, fake and unhygienic brands into the market.

This results in massive counterfeiting of successful brands of bottled water aptly led by Eva. According to keen observers, the propensity to fake the Eva brand both within and outside Lagos is higher than any other brand of bottled water simply because of the market success and prevalence of the brand almost across the country.

Not too long ago, a source had it that a man who was arraigned before an Enugu magistrate court for having both in his hide out and home town, thousands of refilled and empty bottles of Eva loudly protested molestation against his accusers, claiming that the business was his source of livelihood. Many consumers had also relayed their encounters with fake bottled water. 

 The recent public outcry at the rate of fake and unhealthy bottled water, market watchers believed, must have given rise to massive repackaging of the above named bottled water brands in Nigerian market. Recently, Coca Cola and Nigerian Bottling Company reintroduced new Eva bottled water which dealers and consumers described as improved and attractive.

Speaking on the repackaged Eva, Mrs. Chioma Afe,  Senior Brand Manager, Coca Cola, explains that the new pet bottle was creatively reinforced to achieve greater resilience as against the former bottles whose covers are easily replicated. “The new water cover will be difficult to replicate and the reinforced packaging would enhance the Eva water shelf life, while the vibrant contour shape was intended to make the product fit into the consumers' happy moments”, she claims.

 Meanwhile, M2 investigation shows that practically none of the used pet water bottles in question returns back to the factories of the brand owners. Mr. Kofi Amagashi of Coca Cola who was contacted made it clear that the company had never requested empty bottles from scavengers for once and expressed optimism that the new Eva will somewhat keep counterfeiters at bay. “We don't have anything to do with used Eva bottles. In fact, we make provision for new and not old bottles. And I believe our new Eva cover and bottle can hardly be replicated”, he confirmed to M2.

Conscious of the damage the rampant adulterations portend to  their respective brands, Eva, Ragolis, SWAN and Gossy at one time or the other have engaged in repackaging their respective brands on several occassions. All have changed the look and feel of the brands with reinforced colour motif. For instance, Ragolis added a violet red to its colours choice. The two UAC brands now wear a radically altered look. The question however is: can these alterations to the brand presentations fend away the fakers and or counterfeiters? A multimillion dollar question you may consider this.

To industry, keen watchers, for now there seem no end of the road to the fakers. Or else, other than the incessant repackaging, what is the lasting solution to break the back of the counterfeiters once and for all, to save the consumers and the legitimate manufacturers from the inherent problem associated with the malaise.

But the fact still remains that as many manufacturers are surveying the profit potential in the bottled water business, others are making frantic efforts to strike blue gold out of the genuine achievement of others.