Ganesh Iyer, India’s first certified water sommelier and Head of operations, India and Indian Subcontinent, VEEN, speaks about the Finnish brand and its market presence in India.
What was the vision and inspiration behind setting up VEEN?
Finns don’t talk too much. But once they do, it usually leads to an action. A conversation between friends led to the birth of VEEN in Finland in December 2006. The pursuit for perfection hasn’t stopped since.
For VEEN it’s not just about water, it is about life. We have a long history and legacy with water and Mother Nature. We nourish our knowledge and build up the water-how to find unique water sources and create products for specific purposes based on the characteristics of our waters. Currently we have springs in the Arctic Wilderness of Finnish Lapland and Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
The name VEEN is derived from Veen Emonen, Mother of Water as the Finnish Epic Kalevala has it. The goddess is revered by sailors and fishermen for bringing good fortune. The name is not only our way of celebrating Veen Emonen, but is also suggestive of the pure environment at the heart of which VEEN’s waters are found and sourced.
Veen was born out of desire and passion. We cherish our waters, the purest waters on the Planet.
What were the challenges faced in the initial years?
We operate in two different markets which are Europe and India. Europe is catered through our source in Lapland Finland, where the Route to Market is easy whereas finding consumers for your brand amongst a host of multiple brands can be quite tricky.
Back here in India, the route to market is quite tedious on account of various factors like infrastructure, commercial terms etc, but once you overcome these teething issues , you have a segment in India which is premium and fast growing and wants the best of the brands in the food and beverage space.
Where do you source your water and what are its health benefits?
Without water there would be no wines nor your favourite single malt. Similar to growing different grape varieties in different regions and vineyards, VEEN has found multiple unique natural spring sources where it produces distinctive bottled water products of individual characteristics.
Finnish Lapland is VEEN’s place of origin and the home of its first spring source. The brand discovered its second home in 2014, the source of its natural mineral water spring in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan.
VEEN’s water sources are amongst the purest waters and environments on the planet. Our sources are exceptionally rare in characteristic, in that they are in extremely remote, unpopulated and unpolluted parts of the world. Additionally, the sources are no less than superior in virginal which means the water is unspoiled by nitrate with 0mg per litre. The Finnish source has a unbelievably low TDS level of 17-19 which makes it as the smoothest water in the world and the source at the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan with a TDS of 230-260 makes it an ideal standard natural mineral water with a good amount of calcium ideally good for anyone who has arthritis and or osteoporosis.
Can spring water be organic certified?
Our spring water sources in both Finland and the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan are situated in the extreme remotest parts of the world which makes it absolutely pristine as far as the source of the water is concerned. Whether the product is organic certified – to me its meaningless under most circumstances because spring or mineral water cannot be certified as organic.
In fact, there are US regulations in place designed to prevent companies from making an “organic water” claim, except under some very specific circumstances. Under National Organic Program (NOP) policy, water cannot be certified as organic.
In fact, the rules go further than that: they state that processors and manufacturers of various organic products must exclude water when calculating the percentage of organically produced ingredients for labelling and certification reasons.
There’s an exception to the water rule when it comes to flavoured waters that contain fruit juice, herbs or other agricultural additives that do qualify for certification.
Has Covid-19 changed the market dynamics?
Covid has made each one of us realise the bitter truth that all that matters is your health and nothing else and therefore one ought to be mindful and careful of what each of us consume because that has a direct impact on your immune system. Beverages in plastic containers have a damning impact on your health and this pandemic has definitely made people sit up and take notice of the same and so more and more consumers now prefer to have mineral water in glass bottles rather than plastic ones on account of health advantages .
Do you export your products? If yes, to which countries?
Currently our spring water from Finland is exported and is available in 15-16 countries including the Middle East. Our source from Bhutan caters to the Indian Subcontinent.
What are your future plans?
Our future plans in the near future is to have a whole range of “Goodforyou” products under the umbrella of Zero Percent Shop (https://zeropercent.shop) wherein the focus shall be all about Mindful Consumption. Currently there does not exist one single platform on which one can get brands with 0% alcohol, 0% pesticides, 0% sugar, 0% gluten and 0% meat. Zero Percent Shop ‘s vision is to represent leading brands from across the globe in the above categories so that consumers can get access to these brands and thereby lead healthier and happier lives.
