Charlie’s Bottling Antigua Ltd –
Newest kid on the block
T
he need to diversify – to “stay in the other areas via this road, and no longer used the
game” – was the thrust behind the Factory Road. “We started to see a drop off in
establishment of Charlie’s Bottling customers at the Service Station”, Orson said.
Antigua Ltd. and the advent of Gunthropes He added that the establishment was “seeing
Springs Purified Water. like, 10, 15, 20 per cent drop in sales”. Because
of this challenge and a “need to diversify, we
Manufacture and bottled by, George Barnes and
decided to give water a shot”.
in the American market.
his nephew Orson Barnes, this water company In November of 2007 along with Elry Hodge,
can boast it’s the newest on the Antiguan Gunthropes Springs Purified Water was an Electrical Engineer, Orson travelled to
market. officially launched in November 2009. “But it China, to purchase the machinery, as well as
was sometime in 2007 we actually got the idea for training in how to assemble the machinery
With a keen eye for business, George Barnes,
to actually start it,” Orson said. and proper procedures in using them. The duo
who started out with an auto body repair shop,
spent 15 days in China.
later launching into ice production, apartments This idea not only included water, but a line
and other ventures, took on the challenge of of carbonated beverages to be called Crave. The equipment for the water plant started
water, as a means of dealing with the fall off in Orson said that once the idea took root, one of to arrive in Antigua in the first half of 2008.
sales at the Factory Road service station. the first things that was done was the sourcing The remainder started arriving at three-month
of the requisite machinery. The search for intervals thereafter, with the final shipment
Orson who is the Production/Operations
machinery and raw materials needed for the arriving in the last quarter of 2008. “In 2009
Manager of the company, said with the
water plant started in the American market, we began the process of setting them up, testing
construction of the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket
however, Orson said the company decided to to make sure everything was working,” Orson
Stadium, and the re-opening of the Old Parham
source out of the Chinese market where the said.
Road, a lot of people travelling from the East
same machinery was produced cheaper, a lot
side of the island had access to the north and
cheaper, and with the same efficiency as those
Charlie’s Bottling Antigua Ltd. has seven
56 | BusinessFocus • Feb/Mar 2010
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