Over the last decade, Ty Nant has become a legend in the world of bottled waters. Drilltalk visits Ty Nant Spring Water’s bottling plant at Bethania,West Wales and talks to general manager Nick Taylor, to gain an insight into his firm’s high profile success

WITH IMAGINATIVE MARKETING, and a fetish for quality in all its respects, Ty Nant has carved itself a major role in an overcrowded market.

Unrepentantly elitist, the brand defines the ‘ultra premium’ end of the market. From the start of production in 1989, it set out to be the definitive stylish spring water, and it continues to lead this sector.

Today, the distinctive blue bottle graces the tables of diners worldwide—half the company’s output is exported, and their overseas sales are the highest of any UK bottled water.

Taking a pride in being innovators, Ty Nant has won a long string of awards for design, export, marketing excellence and more.

They attained ‘natural mineral water’ status in 1994.

Dealing with success
The meteoric rise of Ty Nant’s fortunes had put pressure on production capacity. The present 45,000 sq ft state-of-the-art bottling plant—sited at the source of the water at Bethania, Ceredigion in West Wales—commenced operations in December 1996. To cope with constantly increasing demand, a second bottling line was commissioned, and became fully operational in November 2001.

Creating this additional capacity called for a major site extension.

Building the range
Recently, the famous blue bottle has been joined by the Tau brand—distinctively packed in chic minimalist black and white labels, and with its own source. Different in personality to the Ty Nant brand, ‘designer’ Tau projects its own unique quality and style. The new line is being well received by the market.

Focus on quality
Compromise is not on offer: ‘Our customers are sophisticated. They demand a lot from the brands they select,’ says general manager Nick Taylor. ‘It is up to us to deliver consistently.

‘In every respect, we aim to present ourselves as a class act—this extends to all our activities.’

Water is sampled by the company’s tasting panel, and if they are, for any reason, not happy, the batch in question is not sold.

They have their own geologist and microbiologist on site, and quality assurance procedures start with incoming bottles and packaging materials, and are completed on filled, labelled bottles.

Protecting the source
Ty Nant rigorously control the 280 acres forming the immediate catchment. Management is strictly to organic standards, and no fertilisers or weedkillers are permitted.

Any waste water is carefully treated via state-of-the-art interceptors and returned as pure as possible to the environment.

Water is the product, and depending on secure boreholes is clearly fundamental to operations. There are three production boreholes, plus six observation boreholes. The production boreholes were tested for three years before being used commercially.

Ty Nant took considerable care selecting a firm to drill their boreholes.

Avoidance of introducing any pollution was a major issue when drilling for water, and any risk of contamination resulting from drilling operations was unacceptable.

‘We needed the security of working with an established driller with a good track record,’ says Taylor. ‘Brian Morgan’s company impressed us with their commitment to excellence.’

Taylor continues on this theme: ‘Morgan’s proposals were highly detailed, with working procedures that fully took the all-important environmental considerations into account’.

Environmental control
Today Ty Nant regard their activity with water well driller WB&AD Morgan as a partnership.

‘There is a lot at stake, as people buying bottled water take purity and quality for granted. In the bottled water market, confidence is everything, and over the years there have been some very high profile business casualties where standards have slipped.’

‘Professionalism is the key, and we look to WB&AD Morgan to help protect our resource.’ The ten-year long association extends to Morgan’s providing hydrogeological advice.

Sinking boreholes, typically to a depth of 30 metres, is something of a challenge, reports WB&AD Morgan’s managing director, Brian Morgan, and over the years his firm has gained considerable familiarity with the terrain

Says Morgan: ‘This is not an easy site. A thick clay layer protects the ground water. But there is a considerable amount of rock in the boulder clay—massive boulders, all of which combines to make life interesting for us.’

A sparkling future
In every respect, Ty Nant Spring Water’s facility makes a positive impression on visitors. Their pride is reflected by the surroundings—starting with the immaculately groomed approach grounds, leading to a fine modern building.

This is a firm that doesn’t rest on its laurels—they have already exceeded a production level of 10 million litres of water bottled annually. And for a company that leaves nothing to chance, this is surely just the start.

Brian Morgan concludes: ‘All my team are very proud of the part we are playing in helping build Ty Nant’s continued success.’