Water venture drowns out pool project

Plans for a Waiwera resort development north of Auckland are being dwarfed by the expansion of a bottled water venture, pushing into new export markets.

Entrepreneur John St Clair Brown said the Waiwera Infinity ionic micro water and Waiwera Mineral Water ventures exported millions of bottles annually and he soon hoped to begin sending the products into South Korea.

Siesta Holdings general manager Gary Winter, who manages the water export business, said that by around March, the product would be exported to China, a market worth millions of dollars. Negotiations were also in hand with two British companies.

About 19,000 bottles of Waiwera Infinity were shipped to Athens to keep the New Zealand Olympic team hydrated.

"The bottled water business is far bigger than the pool business," he said, citing the US, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Fiji, Rarotonga, Samoa, Australia and the Middle East as established export markets for the water, sold since 1875.

The water is claimed to enhance fast and rapid hydration and have anti-ageing and cell repair benefits. The reduced size of hydrogen clusters in Waiwera Infinity is said to assist the body's cells hydrate more rapidly and efficiently than most mineral waters.

St Clair Brown is chief executive of the Waiwera Thermal Spa Resort, which is owned by Zentrum Holdings, of which he is chairman.

In June, he announced plans for a $125 million expansion of the Waiwera hot pools complex, bringing 215 investment apartments and an 80-room hotel to the spa resort.

Fletcher Construction will build the project. St Clair Brown said four international hotel chain operators had expressed an interest in managing the new resort. He bought the Waiwera resort and spa in 1990 soon after selling Mt Hutt Skifield company.