The bottled mineral water brand Purewater will soon be totally gone from all convenience stores and groceries. This is because its manufacturer, San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has decided to pull the plug on the business.
The conglomerate this week announced that it is steering itself toward more environmentally-conscious operations. In a statement, the company cited its efforts to lower environmental footprint for the move. “The plastic bottled water business has given us good returns, but we are choosing to forego it in favor of our long-term sustainability goals,” said SMC President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon Ang.
SMC opts to take a much bigger role in addressing important social as well as environmental issues. This comes after it massively diversified itself by having presence in what are considered as critical industries like infrastructure, power, fuels, and public utilities.
However, the ‘Purewater’ brand will not be completely gone in the market. SMC plans to integrate it into its filtration technology initiative. In turn, the company intends to deploy its filtration system during calamities, when access to safe and potable drinking water commonly gets affected.
In March this year, SMC also rolled out its ‘Water for All’ program. Through this effort, it is committing to trim company-wide water consumption by half by the year 2025.