Straight from the Spa

The French love whatever comes out of a bottle, even if it happens to be water. Not ordinary water, of course, which they distrust. Last year they spent $160 million to buy 1.75 billion bottles of Eau minerale.

Roughly half of this considerable market last week came under the control of a single firm, Source Perrier. Perrier (280 million bottles annually), which had already acquired Contrexeville (300 million), and sells seven smaller brands, announced the acquisition of the Compagnie Fermiere de Vichy (250 million). Gurgled Perrier Chairman Gustave Leven: "We have become the biggest mineral-water firm in the world."

Leven, a sixth-generation member of a family prominent in Paris business, negotiated patiently for eight years to acquire Vichy. A controlling 43.8% interest in Vichy is held by a beer firm called Brasseries et Glacieres de 1'Indochine (BGI). Perrier in turn owns 33% of BGI. The swap that Leven finally arranged was to give BGI its 33% and in return take the controlling interest in Vichy. Perrier has acquired another 10% of Vichy shares from other stockholders. Perrier will not only bottle the water from the twelve mineral springs in the town of Vichy but also operate the Vichy spa--mud baths, gambling casinos, band concerts and all.

Lately Perrier has also been branching out from mineral waters, last year sold 150 million bottles of soft drinks, including Pepsi-Cola. Four years ago, Leven saw an opportunity in the chaos of small-scale French dairy farming and set up a dairy-holding concern that is now the second biggest in France, with sales of $180 million annually.

For Frenchmen who may not like the carbonated Perrier or the somewhat sulphuric Vichy, there is still Evian (454 million bottles) or Vittel (335 million) to irrigate their kidneys, soothe their livers, relieve their gout and perform all the other cures ascribed in France to mineral water. And if they remain thirsty, there is always wine, which still outsells mineral water 3 to 1 in France.

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