Clare Spring Water wins at Great Taste Awards

Clare Spring was recently awarded the Gold Award for it’s 250ml Sparkling water range.

The GTA, organised by the Guild of Fine Food, is the acknowledged benchmark for speciality food and drink. It has been described as the “Oscars” of the food world.

Out of over 8,800 products entered in the 2012 Awards, Clare Spring was one of the lucky few to win a Gold Award.
The Great Taste Awards has carved a reputation over the last decade as the acknowledged accreditation of quality for all speciality food and drink.

read more

Clare Spring Now on Facebook

Clare Spring is on Facebook. Check us out and click Like!!!

Your Favourite Pure Irish Natural Spring Water is now on Facebook. Check out our page for latest news, health tips and much more.

Click here to see the Clare Spring Facebook Page

 

Biodegradable Water Bottles, a first for Clare Spring Water

Printed in the Clare Champion – 21st April 2010

This week, the first consignment of biodegradable and compostable bottles, the first of their kind in Ireland and produced by Clare Spring Water Limited at its €4.2 million plant, was transported to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
While Clare Spring, located on High Street, has signed a confidentiality clause with the European company concerning some aspects of the deal, the new export contract is regarded as a major coup for the company, which is less than a year in operation. Up to 84,000 biodegradable bottles can be produced by the plant daily in full production.
Management from the European airline, which prides itself on being environmentally friendly, visited Clare Spring recently and conducted a thorough examination of the water production facilities before committing to the lucrative deal.
No other bottling company in Ireland or the United Kingdom is producing water in a biodegradable bottle and there is only one other similar venture in Europe. The bottle will fully break down in a composter bin after about 80 days and will fully disintegrate in a landfill after 12 months. It can also be recycled or placed in a biodigester.
Managing director, Paul J Connellan says the “sky is the limit” when it comes to the disposing of their new environmentally friendly bottle, which has already passed a variety of tests to ensure it was sufficiently durable and flexible for the market place.
Mr Connellan admits the company’s success has exceeded all their wildest expectations. “It is crazy when you think this biodegradable bottle is going to the Netherlands before I had a chance to sell it in Limerick City. There are over 16 million people living in the Netherlands in a country the size of Munster. As a country, the people are incredibly environmentally aware. It is almost overwhelming that we had an opportunity to export this product as quickly as this.
“I thought we would start off in Clare, would work our way through Munster and would gradually extend and expand. One of the first people I had to call when we got the international order was Councillor PJ Kelly, who still doesn’t believe me,” he jokes.
Initially, Clare Spring provided natural spring water in a conventional recyclable bottle. However, Mr Connellan was never comfortable with providing high-quality fresh water in a container that wasn’t environmentally friendly.
The civil engineer contacted an American company, Natureworks in Nebraska, who used material from starch-based plants such as polymer to produce plastic forks but never managed to succeed in using it for a durable bottle.
Having designed a bottle two years ago, Mr Connellan asked the American company to conduct a number of trials and, following a few changes to the polymer and mould to make it stronger and more flexible, it passed all the subsequent tests and trials.
Clare Spring has signed a deal with Natureworks giving it exclusive rights to sell the biodegradable bottled water in Europe.
The company is developing a number of projects with the potential to increase the number of jobs by 90 over the next three years. Initially, 10 people were employed when it opened and this has now doubled to 21, including six sales representatives marketing the product in a number of counties, including Clare, Kerry, Limerick and Galway.
The source of Clare Spring Water, discovered by water diviner Councillor PJ Kelly, is an underground spring located deep in the hills near Lissycasey.
Describing Clare Spring as a major local success story, Councillor PJ Kelly said it is a remarkable achievement for a company to secure an export market for a new product, considering it was in operation less than 12 months.
The Lissycasey councillor praised the company for exceeding their own expectations and said he hoped that the raw material for the biodegradable bottle could be sourced from Irish sugar beet or potato producers, thus providing another major spin-off for the Irish economy. “The location of the plant in High Street is the most unlikely location for a major enterprise. Once you leave Lissycasey and head up the hills you enter a new world where innovation and entrepreneurial spirit is king,” he said.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen, opens Clare Spring Water Ltd

Speech by Brian Cowen, September 2009

A dhaoine uaisle,

Tá áthas orm a bheith anseo inniu chun Clare Spring Water Limited a oscailt go hoifigiúil agus chun an Branda Folláine de Tháirgí Clare Spring Water a sheoladh. Ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh le Paul agus Tom Connellan as saoráid den scoth a thógáil anseo agus as a bpleananna uaillmhianacha dá ngnó.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be here today to officially open Clare Spring Water Limited and to launch the Wellness Brand of Clare Spring Water products. I would like to congratulate Paul and Tom Connellan on the state-of-the-art facility they have built here and on their ambitious plans for their business. I know that you currently employ 10 people – and have great plans to create further jobs in areas such as biodegradable bottle manufacturing and recycling, as well as in sales, marketing and engineering.

I have no doubt that given the success of the enterprise to date that you will achieve and maybe even surpass expectations. Clare Spring Water is exactly the type of indigenous company we want to support and encourage as we build our Smart Economy – combining innovation and environmental sustainability.

Consumers are increasingly looking for healthy and traceable products. This is a market which is expanding considerably and Clare Spring Water has, if you’ll excuse the pun, “tapped into” the development potential which exists!

Consumers are also looking for products which are produced in an environmentally friendly manner and with a low carbon footprint. The Wellness Brand will introduce Ireland’s first ever biodegradable and compostable plastic bottle which, I am told, is the future of the bottled water industry as it works towards a goal of zero waste. This is a particularly welcome initiative, as not only does it respond to market demands, but it also responds to the need to move towards a low carbon economy.

As I mentioned at the UN General Assembly on Climate Change in New York last week, the time for rhetoric on Climate Change is over. We must take action, and Paul and Tom are to be commended for doing so from the ground up.

Their approach is an important local step to tackle the problem of climate change while also creating investment and jobs in clean industry. This is just one example of the huge potential in the development of green enterprise. Following on from our commitment in the Smart Economy Framework last year, the Government established a high level Action Group on the Green Economy earlier this year. This Group will report shortly and I hope it will identify ways to re-position Ireland at the forefront of the new global green economy.

The development of this factory was made possible thanks mainly Clare Spring Water’s own innovation and resources, and who to be commended for their initiative, drive and commitment to the venture. I know that Enterprise Ireland has approved a Feasibility Study Grant to assist the company in exploring the UK market and I am also pleased to announce that, the company has, in recent days received a grant under the Leader Programme for €150,000 to assist with growing and developing its business.

I hope that this support will help you achieve your ambitious growth plans and I look forward to hearing about your future success.