Major bottled water actors across the globe, private brands, Chinese bottled water, and the understudied 59% of bottled water

To the extent that one may trust studies that do not present their methodology, this figure offers some interesting data (https://www.statista.com/chart/31772/leading-bottled-water-brands-by-global-market-share/). First, the largest producers add up to 41%, while the rest is a plethora of thousands of brands and producers across the globe. Do scholars know enough about them? Are they different from the brands owned by the big four actors - Nestle, Danone, Pepsi and Coca-Cola? Second, private, “discount” water bottlers who produce purified water for supermarkets (Costo in the US, Kaufland in Europe), retailers (Seven-Eleven), even organizers, sport businesses (such the Yankees) – rose significantly, representing altogether five percent of the total production.

Third, whereas 10-15 years ago all major companies were European and North American, the fourth largest company is Chinese, Tingyi, set up in 1991. China is simultaneously a top three exporter of bottled water at a global level, a major importer of “premium” bottled water such as San Pellegrino, and a population (“market”) targeted by bottled water brands from Europe to be “taught” to drink more bottled water.