Page 18 - Food & Drink Magazine April 2019

COVER STORY
JUST Water takes the plunge
A water brand created by US actor, rapper and entrepreneur Jaden Smith has launched into Woolworths and 7-Eleven in a paper-based carton powered by Tetra Pak technology. Lindy Hughson reports.
JADEN Smith, who is the son of actor Will Smith, founded the JUST Water range as a way to ease plastic bottle pollution in the ocean. The brand was launched in 2015 in the US market, and made its foray in the UK last year. Australia is the third stop on its global expansion trail.
Smith, who visited Australia for the official launch, says, “I’ve always felt really connected to the ocean so when I learnt about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in school, then saw first-hand that there were plastic bottles floating around in the ocean – I knew we could come up with a better option.”
JUST Water is filled and packed in Australia by Slades Beverages. Ahead of the launch, Food & Drink Business sister brand PKN Packaging News was
given an exclusive look behind the scenes at the facility, and spoke to the stakeholders in the project about what makes this water a “better solution”.
FILLING UP
The Slades Beverages’ facility in Victoria is the location of the PKN-JUST Water pow-wow. We’re joined by Andrew Pooch, MD of packaging solutions company Tetra Pak Oceania, and George Tan, director of Slades Beverages, co-packer for the product. Dialled in from Los Angeles, where he’s overseeing the promotion of JUST Water at Expo West, is CEO of JUST Goods, Ira Laufer.
There’s a buzz in the room because this project has been many months in the works and is about to hit lift-off. Elsewhere in the facility the production
line is filling and packing cartons on a new Tetra Top dual lane high-hygiene filling line with a capacity of 9000 bottles per hour. On the table in front us ‘newly minted’ JUST Water cartons take pride of place.
JUST Water’s entry into the Australian market follows the brand’s rapid growth since it first launched in the US in 2015, then expanded into the UK last year. In Australia, three varieties of JUST will be available: 100% spring water and two JUST Infused options, lemon and berry. The flavour essences are added via Tetra Pak’s Aldose system.
Major supermarket retailer Woolworths and convenience chain 7-Eleven have got behind the brand, with Woolworths rolling out the three variants nationwide in a six-month
exclusivity deal, and 7-Eleven stocking the spring water.
Slades director George Tan says having Woolworths as an early adopter immediately lifted the game, and this was compounded by 7-Eleven’s buy-in. “If consumer response matches projections, we’ll be installing a second line soon,” he says, noting that the company’s facilities have room for expansion.
Andrew Pooch adds that plans are already in place for sourcing additional lines for Slades via Tetra Pak’s global network.
“Apart from retailers, there has also been considerable interest from hotels and airlines, who’d be looking at smaller pack sizes,” Pooch says. “The Tetra Top line can accommodate a variety of pack sizes.”
18 | Food&Drink business | April 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au