July 2011 marked the beginning of a new business for Lorne and Joan Siemers with the purchase of Water Pure and Simple in St. Paul.
As long time residents and business owners of St. Paul, they were looking to diversify when the opportunity to purchase an established business in the community presented itself.
The business started off with the production and delivery of 5 and 3 gallon water bottles and a single self serve water dispenser in an 1,800 sq ft building on main street downtown.
In May 2012 they purchased their closest competitor, Crystal Country Springs and became The Right Water Bottling Company. Their territory expanded to a 150 km radius of St. Paul, and the business grew to encompass the production and delivery of bagged ice, “Right Ice”.
By the end of 2013, Right Water became their main focus as the business grew. In 2015 they moved out of their main street location and expanded their bottling facility to 10,000 sq ft., investing in state of the art bottling equipment from a company with an international reputation for building quality equipment. This ensured not only a safer method of bottling water, but also helped meet the growing demand from the communities they served. This expansion included a 500 ml bottling line, offering the option of affordable custom labeled water bottles to the Lakeland area – something usually reserved for larger centers.
10 years and 1.65 million bottles later, they are still going strong. They deliver 8 – 10 truckloads of water a week and upwards of 50,000 bags of “Right Ice” during ice season. Their self serve fill station has expanded to four water dispensers for a $2.00 fill 7 days a week. They also ship out pallets of custom labelled 500 ml water bottles for businesses and local events.
Right Water warehouses 4,000 to 5,000 bottles of water in addition to storing a week’s worth of finished product water in large tanks ready for bottling. This is to ensure they have enough water on hand to service their customers every week, and also takes into consideration their Emergency Response Plan that encompasses emergency situations, source water disruptions from the municipality, or equipment breakdowns.
Prior to COVID, they gave school tours of their facility to elementary school students learning about the “egg to table” concept, which included the manufacturing process, the importance of quality drinking water and the packaging and delivery of the final product.
Lorne and Joan have gained a lot of knowledge and experience over the years and are very hands on, including their 4 kids who have essentially grown up in this business. In addition to blow molding all the 500 ml bottles on site, custom labels are created in house. This allows for a shorter turn around time, and customers are able to order the amount they actually need instead of a large predetermined amount.
There is a deep commitment to providing quality drinking water – a process that is more involved than just filtering the water. They use a four step process that starts with a clean, safe municipal water source from the Town of St. Paul. It’s then put through a water softener to remove the iron and other heavy metals, through a carbon filter to remove the chlorine, fluoride and organic compounds, followed by a reverse osmosis system which removes all remaining minerals and dissolved inorganic compounds. The final step injects ozone for the most effective sterilization.
Monthly water samples are tested in an independent lab to ensure the product water is safe for consumption, and a yearly water sample tests the purification process. Designated as a food grade facility, the site is inspected by AHS.
The product water bottled in the facility for delivery is the same water that flows through the self serve fill station and in the production of the bagged ice. Customers can be assured that they are getting the same quality of water regardless of the end use.
So regardless of where you get your drinking water, don’t be afraid to ask questions like “Where do you get your source water from?”, “How is your water processed?”and “How do you know it’s safe to drink?”.
And, they’re still growing. They’ve recently obtained the assets from another company and will be providing coffee service under “The Right Coffee Company”. This will include coffee, break room supplies and coffee machine rentals/sales. Additionally, they offer a cooler cleaning service for businesses and oilfield sites.
“We deal with a lot of wonderful people and have a great working relationship with all the communities we serve”. They also believe the success of their business is due in part to reputable suppliers that are committed to supporting their business with technical support and product availability.
After 10 years, what’s their motivation? “We believe that building our communities to be a better place to live, play and do business will only help our communities to move forward.”