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Triple Springs Spring Water Co. News

Web Site: http://www.triplesprings.com
199 Ives Ave., Meriden, CT 06450
Tel: (203) 235-8374 Fax: (203) 686-0200

Natural Spring Water, bottled at the source in Meriden. Cooler rentals. Complete coffee break including K-cup service.

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A few weeks ago, Carol Clavet spotted an advertise ...

December 15, 2003

Clavet was buying her bottled water from the grocery stores and paying between $.79 and $1.39 per gallon. But after reading the ad, she loaded four empty gallon containers into a milk crate, and followed the signs along Ives Road to the Triple Springs Water Company where she refilled them herself. Total cost: $1.

"It's fantastic," she said of the service. "And it's very easy to use. They even have paper towels there. If your jug gets wet, you can wipe it off. And it tastes really good."

Since then, getting the family's water supply for the week has found its way into Clavet's routine to and from her job at Electrolux Vacuum on East Main Street.

Endorsements such as Clavet's are just the thing Triple Springs President George P. Kuchle aimed for when he installed the ATM-style kiosk in the front of his bottled water plant. Kuchle was betting that if he offered sizeable savings on his natural spring water, new and existing customers wouldn't mind a ride to the babbling natural spring to get some.

Recognizing that it will take a while for his investment to catch on, Kuchle is willing to wait and see � after all, there's still his commercial and residential delivery customers to keep him busy. The family business opened in 1918; the water is tested daily and is certified by the National Sanitation Foundation and regulated by state and federal agencies.

"We've always had a fairly good walk-in business and some started asking if they could fill their own bottles," he said.

Kuchle and his advertising consultant Stephen Wallack soon realized they could tap into the grocery store bottled water market by offering natural spring water, for 25 cents a gallon any time of day or night.

Naturally, there will always be the more affluent that might prefer it delivered, but his other customers could make the trek a part of the family routine � shopping, returning bottles and filling the water jugs. Besides the process reuses plastic containers and it's a nice ride, he said.

"There used to be many springs in New England where you could stop along the side of the road. But they're gone because of construction," Kuchle said. "We're able to offer that again."

The two stainless-steel dispensers from National Water Vendors can fill containers up to six gallons and will accept up to $5 and dispenses change. According to the National Water Vendors Web site, the dispensers can be hooked into a public water supply, then filtered six times. At Triple Springs, the machines are fed by the natural springs, Wallack said.

Customers may bring their own container or purchase them on site � a two-gallon refrigerator bottle is $10, but costs only 50 cents to refill. The vestibule is heated, well lit and a monitored security camera helps ensure customer safety, Kuchle said.

"It was a pretty large investment to bring these benefits to the people in Meriden," said Wallack.

But Kuchle won't say how much, except to compare it to the cost of "a route truck without a driver."

Member News is provided as a service of the Midstate Chamber of Commerce and is also featured in the monthly "Chamber News" newsletter mailed to members.