Aqua's future all bottled up

AQUA Direct, the mineral water subsidiary of utilities group South Staffordshire, has won a big contract to supply supermarket chain Aldi.

It will supply 10m litres a year of its Elmhurst Spring mineral water to Aldi's stores across the UK from its bottling plant near Lichfield, Staffordshire.

The new £3m plant was opened last week by BBC TV presenter and former Olympic swimming star Sharron Davies, with old school friend Helen James, who is now a director of Aqua Direct.

South Staffordshire has produced bottled water for 18 years, but this is the first time it has launched its own brand name and plans to sell mainly to supermarket chains.

The water is extracted from boreholes near Lichfield. Earlier this year South Staffordshire finished building a bottling plant for its Aqua venture, which will help transform supplies of Elmhurst spring water into own-label supermarket mineral water.