Strong leadership and focus on quality to serve global brands
USHydrations was founded in 1996 serving Northeastern Pennsylvania in home delivery service. Four years later, they moved to a much larger facility and fully renewed their production equipment. Thanks to this investment and strong leadership, USHydrations expanded its market reach, establishing itself as a global contract manufacturer.
Today, USHydrations operates in the premium beverage category and produces over a million bottles a day. Their facility in Pittston has easy access to several major interstates and many large distribution centres: while reaching over 100 million consumers in the area, it also allows for reduced shipping costs to Eastern U.S. locations.
Premium water, strong performance in a growing market
The global bottled water market has enjoyed stable annual volume growth of 6% during the last five years, reaching 214 billion litres in 2015. Growth has been driven by increased consumption in emerging markets including Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East as well as a positive trajectory in other markets, such as North America and Western Europe.
Factors influencing growth in packaged water sales include an improvement in the economic performance of a number of countries and corresponding higher levels of consumer confidence, driving people to start purchasing products that were previously sacrificed. Additionally, other growth drivers include an increasing awareness of good health, encouraging consumers to switch from carbonated soft drinks and fruit juice to low-calorie alternatives, such as still and flavoured water. Increased demand for convenient ‘on-the-go’ products has also benefitted bottled water in small formats.
Within the global packaged water market, the premium segment performed well, growing by 6.0% to 10.7 billion litres. With a value of almost US$15 billion, it sees North America and Western European regions dominating the global volume.[1]
A partnership built on innovative technology, flexible solutions and great service support
A key factor behind the success of a premium brand is its price positioning, when compared to mainstream offerings. The added benefit offered by a top brand must be immediately recognised by the end consumer, be it superior taste, more attractive packaging, or simply its origins from a safe source. The last one is certainly the case for USHydrations, which leverages natural springs from the pristine mountains of Pennsylvania.
Prashant Shitut, USHydrations’ President and CEO, explains what convinced him to choose Sidel for their most recent complete PET line: “What attracted us to the Sidel Group was their reputation, innovative technology, and flexible solutions, combined with the strong service support in North America.”
To support this global contract manufacturer, the Sidel Group supplied a complete line solution as well as a data management system to measure the performance of the line and help identify causes of downtime, which will ultimately maintain or increase the uptime. The complete line offers full flexibility and is able to bottle different formats, bottle designs and products, such as water and carbonated beverages. The Sidel Group offered an optimal and ergonomic line design with a reduced footprint adapted to USHydrations’ needs. Prashant Shitut continues: “More and more, beverage brands are looking for extensive packaging options. They require solutions able to handle single and multi-pack configurations for greater versatility. Sidel’s complete line will clearly allow us to tackle this opportunity in a very efficient way.”
Fabien Charbonnier is the Sidel Account Manager North America, and as such handles the business relationship with this customer. He comments: “It is particularly pleasing to help the company grow and prosper in pursuit of its business ambitions. By providing the advantage of a low total cost of ownership, flexible packaging capabilities, and global expertise, our solutions are perfectly established to support USHydrations on its journey.”
The President and CEO of USHydrations concludes: “The last few years have been fantastic for the company, from a financial and operational perspective. In 2019, the plan is to produce around two million bottles a day and Sidel will help us accomplish this mission.”
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[1] Zenith Global Premium Water Report
