The territory’s main bottled water company has upped water production in response to demand from the local market as the territory runs out of imported bottled water due to shipping delays.
Cherith Lober-Soliai, Production Manager for SLC Manufacturing, the name of the company which produces Vaimalu water, who’s also General Manager of GHC Reid, the Vaimalu distributor, says their factory normally runs 5 days a week, 7 hours a day.
But since January they’ve had to run the line 6 days a week and pushing daily production hours to 10.
Vaimalu 500 millimeter cases and the 5-gallon bottles make up 70% of the company’s production volume.
In addition to stores, the company also supplies the School Lunch Program, LBJ Hospital, government and private sector offices and homes.
Since the shortage of imported water, Vaimalu has been flying out the door.
Cherith-Lober said they have not had any buffer stock sititng in the warehouse.
“Everything that was produced today were all pre sold from yesterday. We had to prioritize LBJ supplies, schools, funeral orders and special events and the rest are sold to stores that are in desperate need for water to sell to the public,” she told KHJ News.
There are no issues supplying the 5-gallon Vaimalu bottles; it’s the cases of water that are in such hig demand since the island ran out of imported cases of water for the last few weeks, she said.
SLC’s water manufacturing plant which opened in 2017 at the old Triple A Building next to Pago Plaza, was wiped out in the 2009 tsunami.
Only the 5 gallon operation was then relocated to the GHC Reid warehouse in Tafuna before it moved to its present location at Petesa.
The plant has 7 employees.
Asked if there are any hurdles to increasing water production while the island is out of imported bottled water, Lober Soliai mentioned a few.
“Water supply is our main concern, ensuring that ASPA continues to supply acceptable water for our multiple treatment system to handle. Quality is our utmost priority,” she explained.
Shipping schedules are also a constraint. It takes 2 months for packaging materials to arrive on island and the company has had to increase orders to accommodate the demand.
Lober Soliai said they depend on vessels to bring in packaging materials on schedule. The current shipment delays and boost in production means faster depletion of materials.
Lober-Soliai thanks customers for their patience as their company tries to meet everyone’s demands.
And she encourages the public to use the 5-gallon bottles versus the smaller bottles of Vaimalu water.
