Charlie’s Honest Water
Charlie’s was started in 1999 by Stefan Lepionka, Marc Ellis and Simon Neal (that’s the boys in action in the clip). These three honest fellas got to talking one day about sport and how there’s never anything good on the telly and all the usual things. Then they started talking about juice. They thought it all tasted processed, unnatural and was generally undrinkable. Juice was a subject close to the heart of these three and healthy, natural products was a subject close to the hearts of the public. So putting their money where their collective mouth was, Stefan, Marc and Simon started Charlie’s.
Charlie’s juice brands’ key point of difference remains being a not-from-concentrate juice. Starting off with orange juice, there are now four product ranges under the Charlie’s brand – juices, smoothies, quenchers and water drinks. A new brand was launched in October 2007 to enter the carbonated soft drink market with a healthy carbonated fruit drink called Charlie’s Soda Co. Honesty is what the Charlie’s brand stands for. For us this means producing the purest drinks of the highest quality, and being honest in our actions, which will always be true to our company and brand values.
My sister was drinking Charlie’s Honest Water in their 650ml Eco-Bottle. I thought they were pretty okay in my books when I read the following: At Charlie’s we care about our planet, that’s why our Honest water is in a new eco-bottle. The bottle and its label are made from plants. Most other plastic bottles out there are not. They’re made from oil. Plants are renewable and sustainable. Oil isn’t. So that makes this bottle one of the most environmentally-friendly water bottles you can buy. Now that’s honest! Cheers Marc & Stefan.”
It’s funny who you bump into when you least expect it. Among their Directors is one Tim Cook. Two lasting memories I have of Tim from pre-Sydney days was him test driving the cornering capabilities of our Montego Turbo MG. I believe we went into a corner very well at 95km/hr and the car and Tim handled themselves very well thank you very much! The other is a story he told us about a plane trip and jelly shoes, about the latter, well let’s say you just had to be there! Charlie’s gets both the kiwiStyle and mindStyle categories because I love the way they think.
UPDATE
On 3 July, 2011 Charlie’s was sold to Japanese brewer giant Asahi netting a 340 percent ROI. The cash sale of Charlie’s Group for $129.3 million was accepted by Lepionka and co-founders Marc Ellis and Simon Neal.
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