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Microcap & Penny Stocks : IWWC - Bottled Water joint venture with Indian tribes -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: micky who wrote (13)	7/10/1998 9:41:00 AM
From: Tomales	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81

I love water/drink it all day long. Her is something of interest for you to look at. Thank you GD Window on the World Heavy (Spring) Water Barry Lackro didn't need a divining rod to know there was money to be made in spring water. e did need a freight forwarder, export specialist, and other advisers before Shade Mountain Spring Water of Glenmoore, Pa., could tap the opportunity. This spring, Shade Mountain began exporting its spring water and, by fall, it might be the only water bottler located within a free-trade zone. The company has opened offices in Moscow, Cyprus, and London, and is now building a $9.5 million bottling facility on 10 acres outside Philadelphia. Lackro admits his globalization was a fluke. He took Shade Mountain into the international arena four years ago when a fire at a Mobil plastics plant in Louisiana severely cut back the supply of plastic containers. In searching out new suppliers, he was introduced to a Chinese conglomerate that could provide resin for producing the bottles. Enter the trade advisers who suggested importing the resin to a free-trade zone, manufacturing and filling the bottles there, and re-exporting the finished product for tax-free sale overseas. "I wish I could say I sat back and had some grand plan, but that's not the case," he says. "My partner and I have allowed events to unfold before us and take ad-vantage of it where we can." So far, that includes a 24 million-liter order for an Egyptian restaurant and discussions with potential customers in India and China. Saudi Arabia imports more than 1 billion liters of purified water per year "because pure water in many countries is not a luxury item. Worldwide consumption of bottled water is growing at 23% annually because of health concerns," Lackro says, "not a need for status symbols." The downside is the cost of getting bottled water to market-the actual cost of freight and delivery. "When you talk about exports, you start to layer on a lot of costs," says Gary Stiles, sales manager at Cloister Spring Water, another water company based in Lancaster, Pa. His company has shipped water to China and U.S. military installations in Europe, but found many of the prospects difficult to make profitable. "The problem with water is the weight for an export product," says Glen Van Der Schaaf, a trade specialist with Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture. "It's dense, so it's like gold, and costs a lot to ship." - David J. Wallace