Mountain Valley Spring Water will continue operations in the Hot Springs area under its new ownership, the iconic brand’s chief financial officer said Tuesday.
Charles H. Brown said it’s “business as usual” after the $78.5 million acquisition of Mountain Valley Spring Co. LLC by DS Services, a subsidiary of publicly held Cott Corp. of Canada and Tampa, Fla., closed Monday.
“The acquisition will allow Mountain Valley Spring Water Company to continue its strong growth and continued support for its home, Hot Springs,” Brown said in an email, adding that the north Garland County bottling facility and downtown visitors center and museum will continue to operate.
Cott announced the acquisition from Great Range Capital in a news release Monday, adding Mountain Valley to a transatlantic portfolio that includes Atlanta-based DS, the United Kingdom’s Aimia Foods and Decantae´Mineral Water, Canadian beverage distributor Aquaterra and Royal Crown Cola International of Columbus, Ga.
Great Range Capital, a Kansas City-based private equity firm, acquired Mountain Valley in 2014, according to news reports. It retained Mountain Valley’s debt and excess cash as part of the deal with Cott, according to Cott’s release.
“The Mountain Valley acquisition is another positive step in building out our water solutions portfolio and meeting our stated desire to continue to pursue acquisitions in the growing water and coffee segments, where we believe our operating strength and synergies can be leveraged,” Tom Harrington, Cott’s head of route-based services and incoming chief executive officer, said in the release.
Mountain Valley is the latest of several brands Cott has brought under its banner in recent years. It acquired bottled water provider DS’ parent company, DSS Group Inc., for $1.25 billion in late 2014. In 2016, the company announced the addition of Aquaterra, European home and office water delivery service Eden Springs and S&D Coffee Inc., a North Carolina-based coffee and tea vendor for the food service and hospitality industries.
Cott is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and has more than $2 billion in outstanding shares. The food and beverage company said under its leadership it expects Mountain Valley’s before-tax-and-debt earnings to increase by 18 percent in two years.
Mountain Valley’s flagship brand, Mountain Valley Spring Water, has been sourced from the Lockett Spring near the company’s bottling plant off West Glazypeau Road since 1871, the company said earlier this year.
Springs elsewhere, including one on a more than 1,000-acre tract the company owns between Jessieville and Hot Springs Village, are used by other brands under the Mountain Valley umbrella.
It acquired 130 acres formerly known as Fountain Lake Resort, a popular recreational area north of Hot Springs in the 1930s and 40s, in June for $1.4 million. Brown said the property off Park Avenue has an abundant spring source the company hopes to use.
According to information from the Garland County Historical Society, Sure Value Stamp, a division of Affiliated Foods, purchased the property in 1993 and produced bottled water from artesian wells on the site.