SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Alkaline Water Company Inc. (NASDAQ: WTER) (CSE: WTER) (the “Company”), the country’s largest independent alkaline water company and The Clean Beverage Company™, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with a turnkey E-Commerce agency which specializes in the management of Amazon, Walmart.com, and other major retailers’ digital marketplaces.
This new partnership will be managed by The Alkaline Water Company’s new Director of E-Commerce, Chris Pitman. Mr. Pitman most recently served as director of e-commerce and digital merchandising with Essentia, where he helped grow the brand’s overall e-commerce channel sales performance by over 160% over a three-year period. In his new role at Alkaline88, Mr. Pitman will leverage the full-service capabilities of the Company’s new e-commerce agency which include overall strategy, on-platform marketing, and advertising, e-commerce specific content and optimization, and supply chain efficiency.
“We are making a stronger push than ever before into the e-commerce channel. As consumers continue to embrace digital shopping for groceries, e-commerce is a channel with significant upside potential for Alkaline88®,” said Ricky Wright, President and CEO of The Alkaline Water Company. “We’ve continuously expanded our presence in the traditional grocery channel, and we will keep doing so, but the events of 2020 and 2021 have shown us definitively that online beverage buying habits are here to stay. eMarketer found that food and beverage was by far the fastest-growing e-commerce category in the US in 2020 and forecasts 151.5 million US digital grocery buyers by 2024 vs. 92.3 million in 2019.”
Wright went on to say, “Chris Pitman brings us the in-house capabilities that we had previously been lacking to capitalize on this opportunity. He has been in the beverage industry for almost a decade now and has shown success leading a team that helped significantly grow e-commerce sales for Essentia. Chris’s knowledge and our new partnership with an industry-proven e-commerce agency will allow us to establish our brand with the major retailers in this channel. We believe the e-commerce channel can meaningfully contribute to sales within 18 months.”
The Alkaline Water Company is The Clean Beverage Company™ making a difference in the water you drink and the world we share.
The Alkaline88® flagship brand of premium alkaline water is now available in 75,000 stores across all trades in the U.S. For more information, visit www.thealkalinewaterco.com.
About The Alkaline Water Company:
Founded in 2012, The Alkaline Water Company (NASDAQ: WTER) (CSE: WTER) is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Its flagship product, Alkaline88®, is a leading premier alkaline water brand available in bulk and single-serve sizes along with eco-friendly aluminum packaging options. With its innovative, state-of-the-art proprietary electrolysis process, Alkaline88® delivers perfect 8.8 pH balanced alkaline drinking water with trace minerals and electrolytes and boasts our trademarked label “Clean Beverage.” Quickly being recognized as a growing lifestyle brand, Alkaline88® launched A88 Infused™ in 2019 to meet consumer demand for flavor-infused products. A88 Infused™ flavored water is available in six unique all-natural flavors, with new flavors coming soon. In 2021, The Alkaline Water Company was pleased to welcome Shaquille O’Neal to its board of advisors and to serve as the celebrity brand ambassador for the Alkaline88® and A88 Infused™ brands.
To purchase Alkaline88® and A88 Flavor Infused products online, visit us at www.alkaline88.com.
To learn more about The Alkaline Water Company, please visit www.thealkalinewaterco.com or connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn.
Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains “forward-looking statements.” Statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions regarding the future. Such forward-looking statements include, among other things, the following: that e-commerce is a channel with significant upside potential for Alkaline88®; that the Company will keep expanding its presence in the traditional grocery channel;; that Chris’s knowledge and the Company’s new partnership with an industry-proven e-commerce agency will allow the Company to establish its brand with the major retailers in the e-commerce channel; and that the Company believes that its e-commerce channel can meaningfully contribute to its sales within 18 months.
The material assumptions supporting these forward-looking statements include, among others, that on-line beverage buying habits will continue in 2021 and beyond; that the demand for the Company’s products will continue to significantly grow; that the past production capacity of the Company’s co-packing facilities can be maintained or increased; that there will be increased production capacity through implementation of new production facilities, new co-packers and new technology; that there will be an increase in number of products available for sale to retailers and consumers; that there will be an expansion in geographical areas by national retailers carrying the Company’s products; that there will be an expansion into new national and regional grocery retailers; that there will be an expansion into new e-commerce, home delivery, convenience, and healthy food channels; that there will not be interruptions on production of the Company’s products; that there will not be a recall of products due to unintended contamination or other adverse events relating to the Company’s products; and that the Company will be able to obtain additional capital to meet the Company’s growing demand and satisfy the capital expenditure requirements needed to increase production and support sales activity. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. Such factors include, among others, governmental regulations being implemented regarding the production and sale of alkaline water or any other products; additional competitors selling alkaline water and enhanced water products in bulk containers reducing the Company’s sales; the fact that the Company does not own or operate any of its production facilities and that co-packers may not renew current agreements and/or not satisfy increased production quotas; the fact that the Company has a limited number of suppliers of its unique bulk bottles; the potential for supply-chain interruption due to factors beyond the Company’s control; the fact that there may be a recall of products due to unintended contamination; the inherent uncertainties associated with operating as an early stage company; changes in customer demand and the fact that consumers may not embrace enhanced water products as expected or at all; the extent to which the Company is successful in gaining new long-term relationships with new retailers and retaining existing relationships with retailers; the Company’s ability to raise the additional funding that it will need to continue to pursue its business, planned capital expansion and sales activity; and competition in the industry in which the Company operates and market conditions. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable law, including the securities laws of the United States and Canada. Although the Company believes that any beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should consult all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to the risk factors disclosure outlined in the reports and other documents the Company files with the SEC, available at www.sec.gov, and on the SEDAR, available at www.sedar.com.
