St Nicolas water back on the shelves

FANS of Saint Nicholas natural mineral water will be happy to know the water is back on the market following its withdrawal towards the end of last year.

KEO reintroduced the water exactly a week ago today and distributed bottles from its new production line to communities’ islandwide.

The factory closed down its operations in September last year after Health Ministry services found traces of the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa in samples of water, deeming it unsuitable for public consumption.

Commercial manager Elias Sozou said yesterday the contamination had been traced to the bottling line and was not a problem with the water itself. It likely occurred during construction works to build the new factory which was adjacent to the old building and had created a “disturbance and dust”, he said.

The new bottling line at Ayios Nicholaos Stegis in the mountain village of Kakopetria used the most technologically advanced method to bottle water that eliminated any possibility of external contact. This was done through a concealed type process, which meant the bottle was made, immediately filled at source and capped without any exposure to the environment, he said.

Sozou had said the completion of the new factory had taken “a little longer than expected… from six weeks to 16”.

He said the new production line carried the same logo and colours but that the label was now clear and the bottles’ shape had changed.

“The 50ml bottle is shorter and harder and the logo type is on the cap, while the bigger bottle (1.5ml) is slightly taller and thinner,” he said.

Sozou said the company’s “penetration in the market” was “fully recovered” with customers already having placed repetitive orders indicating consumer confidence in the product.

“It will take some time but we expect to the leaders in the market again,” he said.

In the past the company had enjoyed 48 per cent of the market, a shared he based on results on by market research company RAI last September.

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