Kona Deep brings desalinated deep ocean water to the US market
CEO of Kona Deep, Patrick Turpin, told BeverageDaily his company represents a new category of premium deep ocean water.
Already in Japan and other parts of Asia, deep ocean water is widely used for drinking, cosmetics and aquaculture, according to Turpin.
Geographical advantage of Kona’s coast
Turpin said the Kona Deep’s water comes from melted glacial water, which sunk to the ocean floor more than 1,000 years ago, creating a deep ocean current that still flows today.
The coast of Kona in Hawaii, which the company is named after, provides an ideal location to source and bottle the water, Turpin said, because no reef has been formed yet.
“Just off the coast of Kona, Hawaii, the ocean floor falls sharply to over 3,000 feet below the surface. It is this geological phenomenon that allows Kona Deep to access this deep ocean water in Kona and bottle it at the source,” he said.
Once Kona Deep brings the deep ocean water to the surface, the water is desalinated and bottled, Turpin explained.
Business expansion
Retailers are pricing the bottles between $1.29 and $1.49 for a half liter and around $2.29 for a liter. Kona Deep is currently available in Hawaiian grocery stores and convenience stores, as well as online through Amazon, according to Turpin.
In March this year, the company plans to launch the brand throughout natural, grocery and specialty channels in the Western United States, Turpin said, and it’ll further expand its distribution to the rest of the country this year.
“Once we achieve distribution, we’ll focus on educating consumers about the benefits of deep ocean drinking water,” he said, even though Turpin admits educating consumers about a new category is challenging.
Health benefits make deep ocean water competitive
Deep ocean water, Turpin said, contains nothing artificial, and its electrolytes also have hydration benefits.
He added that a current study underway at the University of Arizona, commissioned by Kona Deep, seeks to evaluate the impact of post-exercise hydration with deep ocean mineral water on exercise performance, rehydration and recovery.
“And to date the preliminary results have been very promising in terms of Kona Deep’s speed of hydration and depth of hydration,” Turpin said.
Even though Turpin believes Kona Deep’s product is in a category by itself, he said the functional benefits can cause some people to trade traditional drinks in for Kona Deep.
“With consumers leaving sugary sodas and sports drinks by the millions, the water category will continue to grow both in depth and breadth. And we believe that 10 years from now when people consider their options of what water to drink, deep ocean water will be a significant segment within the category.”
