World's oldest Bottled Water Scoops Design Award

The world’s oldest bottled water company, Waiwera Infinity, has today won a prestigious global design award for its innovative bottle, designed and packaged in New Zealand.

Announced at a ceremony in Italy, New Zealand owned Waiwera Infinity’s glass bottle triumphed over 135 entries from at least 30 countries to win the ”Best Bottle in Glass” title.

First bottled in 1875, Waiwera water was available four years before France’s Evian water was sold. It is drawn from a geothermal aquifer located 1500 metres beneath the Waiwera thermal valley, north of Auckland.

The award-winning bottle’s distinctive shape has been designed by Kiwi packaging designer David Melrose, to resemble the original bottle shape used by Waiwera in 1875. The original bottle had no base and would not stand vertically – it lay down in order to keep the cork wet and secure.

John St Clair Brown, Waiwera Infinity’s owner, says he is delighted the accolade has gone to his family business which is proud to be a truly owned and operated New Zealand company.

“Around 200 years ago as many as 3000 Maoris could be seen one time bathing in the naturally hot mineral water which bubbled out of pools dug in sand at Waiwera beach, and drinking the water which they believed so powerful that they named it Te Rata, the doctor. Talk of the therapeutic and curative properties of Waiwera water spread during the 1840’s and it has been documented that people would travel from around the world to ‘take the waters’. Today, people can still visit the thermal pools and spa, and they can enjoy drinking our water which is still bottled at source.” Waiwera Infinity Water is sold to the New Zealand market, with twenty percent currently being exported to countries including North America, Japan, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Europe.

The fifth annual bottledwaterworld Design Awards was judged by an international panel of judges and held at a global bottled water congress in Bergamo, north of Milan.