Word: perrier
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France's Perrier company has built an empire on water. Besides selling half of the roughly 2.5 billion bottles of mineral water that Frenchmen drink every year, it has the national franchise for Pepsi-Cola and is one of the largest makers of chocolate and other candy in France. Annual sales are $204 million. But when Perrier tried to expand its gastronomic conglomerate by growing big in the dairy industry, the ensuing spectacle resembled the script for a French farce...
...faster!" shouted the President, roaring with laughter. For 50 minutes the crowd of nearly 1,000 stomped to John Philip Sousa marches. Leaving most of his guests wilted, the 73-year-old President finally strode back to his table, lit up a Havana, took a drink of Scotch and Perrier, and was ready for the next dance...
Leven, a sixth-generation member of a family prominent in Paris business, negotiated patiently for eight years to acquire Vichy. A controlling 43.8% interest in Vichy is held by a beer firm called Brasseries et Glacières de 1'Indochine (BGI). Perrier in turn owns 33% of BGI. The swap that Leven finally arranged was to give BGI its 33% and in return take the controlling interest in Vichy. Perrier has acquired another 10% of Vichy shares from other stockholders. Perrier will not only bottle the water from the twelve mineral springs in the town of Vichy...
...Lately Perrier has also been branching out from mineral waters, last year sold 150 million bottles of soft drinks, including Pepsi-Cola. Four years ago, Leven saw an opportunity in the chaos of small-scale French dairy farming and set up a dairy-holding concern that is now the second biggest in France, with sales of $180 million annually...
...Frenchmen who may not like the carbonated Perrier or the somewhat sulphuric Vichy, there is still Evian (454 million bottles) or Vittel (335 million) to irrigate their kidneys, soothe their livers, relieve their gout and perform all the other cures ascribed in France to mineral water. And if they remain thirsty, there is always wine, which still outsells mineral water 3 to 1 in France...