Depletion is primarily a medical term. It is the reduction of the normal quantity of a liquid contained in a cavity or system. This is the term that was borrowed several decades ago, particularly in the context of the Meadows report on the scarcity of resources, particularly oil. It was a matter of saying that by pumping… one day there would be less and less and one day perhaps none at all. We should therefore plan for the decarbonization of the economy.
Not to save the planet (which all the mamamouchis who run us don’t care about), but to save our system, which only runs on carbon energy.
In short, mineral waters are also in full depletion in addition to being in full depression.
Let’s return to the Perrier waters. An iconic brand. A bottled water giant.
The “champagne” of mineral waters.
This is not the first scandal for Perrier.
Already in 1990, there was the case of Perrier contaminated with benzene. “The discovery of tiny traces of benzene in a few bottles in the United States, following negligence during a filter change in Vergèze, led to the destruction of 280 million bottles. The affair had weakened the company to the point of forcing its owner at the time to sell it to Nestlé. Since then, the world leader in the food industry has succeeded in making Perrier a gem again: at its peak, in the 2010s, the world’s leading sparkling water brand produced two billion bottles per year, sold in more than 100 countries. . The Vevey giant touted Perrier as a successful example of moving part of its portfolio upmarket. In 2023, for the 160th anniversary of Napoleon III’s recognition of the water coming out of the Bouillens spring, in Vergèze, as natural mineral water, Perrier entrusted Philippe Starck with the task of redesigning its iconic bottle.
And now it is bacteria from fecal matter that are found in this high-end water.
At Nestlé, owner of the brand, “this temporary deterioration in the quality of the Source is explained by an episode in the Cévennes, storm Monica, whose intense rains led to flooding. Although management may assure that there is no risk for the bottles available on the shelves of supermarkets, cafes, hotels and restaurants, the impact on Perrier’s image is considerable.
Above all, the Cévennes episode reveals the fragilities of the Source. Despite the efforts to preserve its environment undertaken by management, the densification of the population, cultivation techniques, the increased use of chemical compounds in other industries and, above all, extreme climatic events (floods, violent floods, droughts ) affect the quality of natural mineral waters in France. A disaster for bottlers, who must ensure the mineral stability of the sources they pump without being able to treat them other than by microfiltration.
The myth of mineral water flowing for 150 years without disturbance is over. I spent five years looking for water and gas in Vergèze, corresponding to the requirements of the regulations and our labels. From year to year it got harder. »
There is no more water and it no longer flows from… a Source!
No secret, to earn more, you have to produce more!
“In the mid-2010s, Perrier management set itself the ambition of producing two billion bottles per year. The objective will be achieved, but only thanks to the authorized addition of gas in the bottle and at the cost of contravening French regulations on natural mineral waters. In January, after the publication of an investigation by Le Monde and France Info, Nestlé confessed to prohibited purification practices: the use of carbon filters and ultraviolet rays to treat mineral water.
“It started well before 2021. Given the financial challenges, everyone was hiding their heads,” recalls someone close to the company, who puts the performance at the time into perspective. We forget to say that if we sold the same number of bottles as in 1989, they were 50 and 75 centiliter bottles, not one liter.” Current management recognizes “not acceptable” practices, recalling that they stopped in 2021. The problem? Since Perrier has respected the rules again, the number of bottles of mineral water leaving Vergèze has fallen by a third: it went from 1.7 in 2021 to 1.2 billion in 2023.
The reality is that a brand like Perrier cannot grow infinitely in a “finite” Source which is increasingly difficult to “renew”.
The reality is that in many cases we have physical limits to growth. Limits that can be pushed back, modified, or moved very far away depending on innovations, discoveries and technological progress. But this is not valid for everything.
The physical limits to infinite growth in a finite world are nuanced. We can grow knowledge in infinite ways, but not certain exploitations. Perrier is therefore paying the price for this siphoning of “resources” and it is very likely that we will realize that Nestlé has not managed this Source in a sustainable manner, thereby killing its own goose that lays the golden eggs.
Charles SANNAT
“This is a ‘presslib’ article, that is to say free of reproduction in whole or in part provided that this paragraph is reproduced following it. Insolentiae.com is the site on which Charles Sannat speaks daily and delivers an impertinent and uncompromising analysis of economic news. Thank you for visiting my site. You can subscribe for free to the daily newsletter at www.insolentiae.com. »
Source Le figaro.fr here
