Singaporeans deficient in calcium have a new, convenient way to build up their calcium intake - by simply drinking a new bottled mineral water that has just hit the market here.
A home-grown company has come up with this unique way of helping those who do not like drinking milk or are unable to drink it, to build up their calcium levels.
By drinking just eight glasses of Pere Ocean's calcium fortified mineral water, a person can get 25 per cent of the 800 mg of daily intake of calcium recommended by doctors for healthy living, says the company.
"Many Asians don't have enough calcium, and at the same time some are lactose intolerant and can't take milk to build up calcium in their body to desired levels. Recent studies have shown that Asians are more prone to fractures as their bones are not strong enough due to insufficient calcium," says Mr Jerry T H Tan, chief executive of Wanin Industries, which produces and markets the Pere Ocean line of premium water products.
Photos/ JOEL BOH
"Early last year, we approached the Food and Science Department of Singapore Polytechnic to see if they can help us to add calcium in water. We had read in newspapers that they had helped other SMEs (small and medium seized enterprises), so we sought their help.
"Calcium is fully soluble in water, and the solution they came up with is highly marketable as the calcium fortified mineral water is just the same as normal bottled mineral water," added Mr Tan.
It was very challenging to blend calcium with water and not have any taste. But the blind tests done by Singapore Poly with their students showed they had been successful in their project.
"We did our own testing too. The calcium fortified mineral water is odourless and tasteless. We see a huge market potential for our new product," said Mr Tan.
Pere Ocean's new product was commercially launched in mid-May.
A 10-litre bottle retails at $9. Home delivery is included if two to five bottles are ordered at a time.
"Adding calcium to our normal mineral water adds about 10 per cent to the cost of production," said Mr Tan.
The price of $9 for the calcium fortified mineral water bottle of 10 litres, compares favourably with the regular mineral water of the same capacity which retails for $8.
Mr Tan said that many housewives and companies like Singapore Technologies and Pacific Sowa Corp are already trying out the new calcium-fortified mineral water. Demand is expected to build up gradually.
Pere Ocean's claim to fame is that it is the only Singapore mineral water producer to have its own mineral water source, located in Malaysia. The other Singapore companies producing and selling bottled water either use regular water and process it further, or import the bottled water from overseas and simply market it locally.
Mr Tan, 54, said that the family-owned Wanin Industries went into the bottled water business in Singapore in 1986. "Incomes had risen in Singapore and it was trendy to have a plastic water bottle in one's hand. People wanted to have something better than tap water. So we started bringing in bottled water from Indonesia and the family started to diversify from its traditional auto spare parts business.''
He himself had come to Singapore from Indonesia in 1968 as a 16-year-old lad to study here as his own Chinese medium school was closed down in the home country. He did national service here and became a citizen. Subsequently the rest of his family moved to Singapore.
As the Pere Ocean bottled water business picked up in Singapore, "in 1990 we bought 7 acres of land in a nice, clean location in Johor. With technical assistance from the Americans we designed and built a whole new factory and bought all the equipment from America. The initial investment was $2 million," says Mr Tan.
Today, the company bottles and sells 100,000 litres of its mineral water every day in Singapore and Malaysia, having grown by 5 to 20 per cent on the average every year since going into production.
Big names like NTUC FairPrice, Cold Storage and Singapore Airlines are among the wide range of companies that have Wanin Industries' mineral water bottled under their brand names. Even hotels, jewellery shops and educational institutions like the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) use the bottles for their own branding. Such sales account for nearly 15 per cent of the company's sales.
Mr Tan said his company extracts mineral water from 100 metres below ground level in Johor and puts it through two series of filtration to remove all physical impurities. The water is then treated with utraviolet rays and goes through a process called "ozonisation" to kill any bacteria present.
He stressed that unlike tap water, there was no chlorine in the bottled water produced by his company.
"Our bottled mineral water has a shelf life of over two years when the bottles are kept indoors at room temperature," he said.
However, as some countries only permit a one-year shelf life, bottles shipped to them carry a one-year expiry date.
Pere Ocean mineral water bottles are sold directly to markets like Vietnam and Hong Kong, and by traders to other countries.
Among the company's customers is the US Navy which often takes its water supplies from Wanin Industries when its ships and aircraft carriers visit Singapore.
The company employs some 200 staff at its two distribution centres in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and the production plant in Johor in Malaysia.
In the past three years, Pere Ocean has captured an impressive 35 per cent of the bottled water market in Singapore. Its aim is to raise this figure to 50 per cent.
"The bottled water market is growing at double-digit rates every year in many countries.
There is no sugar in our bottled water. The best way to quench thirst is with bottled water."
Wanin Industries recorded sales of $10 million last year, a 10 per cent increase over the previous year. Mr Tan expects sales growth to be in the same region this year too.
Besides the calcium fortified mineral water, the company has recently introduced soluble vegetable fiber bottled water targeting women who may want to drink it for slimming.
"We will continue to look for new products and markets to keep growing our business," said Mr Tan.
