Montaqua springs into action – Small Montana company cashing in on unique source of bottled water

When it comes to starting a business, Glenn Hegsted has experience and guts. He’s owned two sawmills, started an oil business and opened a guest ranch on the 300 acres he owns south of Dillon.

By JILL FITZSIMMONS in Western Montana InBusiness (Missoulian)

So it should have been no surprise to anyone when he decided he would once again turn to the land and join one of the most competitive businesses out there – bottled water.

“He truly has the entrepreneurial spirit,” David Hegsted says of his father.

With David at his side, Glenn and two investing partners are selling spring water that’s bottled straight from its source on the Hegsted land and sold under the Montaqua label. Their 25,000-square-foot water bottling plant overlooks a canyon in southwestern Montana and the Beaverhead River.

Sure, building a water-bottling plant and joining an ultra-competitive industry was something of a gamble, Glenn says.

“I can go to Vegas and gamble, or I can go to Montana and gamble,” he says.

The bottled-water business is growing. Manufacturers sold more than $7.7 billion worth of bottled water last year, an increase of 12.3 percent from 2001, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp. Last year, the average consumer drank 21 gallons of bottled water, about 11 percent more than in 2001, the marketing group says.

Considered a medium-sized bottling company by the industry, Montaqua began selling water in the fall 2001. So far, so good. Sales are up 35 percent from last year, David says. Montaqua water is distributed in Montana as well as northern Idaho, eastern and central Washington and parts of Utah. And, fittingly, the company also hopes to expand distribution to Las Vegas, David says.

The past couple of years have been a learning experience for the family. Nothing really prepared them for what they were getting into, David says.

It’s been a battle to get the attention of distributors and consumers, says David, who’s charged with marketing, developing and sales. Montaqua competes with big names such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle, which have claimed a large chunk of the water business. And then there’s the consumer, who typically believes all bottled water is created equal, David says.

But what sets Montaqua apart from the rest is the distinctive story that comes with the water, David says.

The story of those natural springs and cascades starts long before the Hegsteds moved onto the ranch off Interstate 15. The ranch has 16 natural springs which together flow about 5.6 million gallons a day. Water is not pumped but rises from its own geothermal pressure to the surface from a deep aquifer. It reaches the surface by following block faulting until it exits through a limestone formation.

The springs were once used as a safe haven by Indians. Pictographs are close by, and arrowheads and other stone implements have been found on the ranch. In 1805, Capt. William Clark wrote of the springs in his journal after passing by what is now Dillon. There’s also an article written in 1881 in the Dillon Tribune that describes the Cascade Springs, as they were called by locals. Back then, the cascades fell to about 200 feet, and the water was thought to have great healing powers. The water, the article’s author wrote, “possesses rare medical properties, petrifies or at least encases with stone, any substance with which it remains in contact any considerable length of time.”

Glenn would soon learn of these healing powers when he bought the property. An engineer and sawmill owner, Glenn moved his three children and late wife, Diann, from their Dillon home into a 14-by-21-foot cabin. It had one light bulb, one bedroom and a dirt floor. The outhouse they used still stands. During the winter, it got so cold that each night a 5-gallon bucket of water left in the cabin froze solid.

“I’m really glad I don’t remember any of it,” David jokes.

But the family quickly grew to love the land for what it gave them. The children grew up among the springs and waterfalls. They often bathed in the hot springs. When David talks of the land’s history, there’s a true passion in his voice.

“I love the sound of water,” he says. “I grew up around water.”

Rather quickly, Glenn started noticing there was something special about the water. There are family stories of an injured Arabian horse and other farm animals that thrived after drinking the water. But Glenn didn’t have it tested until 1989. The results showed some naturally pure water packed with beneficial minerals.

All water bottled in Montana is similar in mineral composition and purity, David says. However, Montaqua is unique in that it is high in a mineral called strontium, which is found in higher concentrations in ocean water. It is the mineral that makes coral. Like calcium, it can make bones in the body.

The water also has an optimal amount of naturally occurring fluoride. And while the company follows all guidelines set by the state and FDA, Montaqua does not have to undergo many treatment steps that most bottled waters do because it is naturally pure, according to information from the company.

Once they knew what they had, the family had a vision. They wanted to share the water with the public. David, a business and communication major at Western Montana College in Dillon, graduated in 1999. He was touring Europe when his father, eager to get to work, summoned him home.

“I got thrown into the fire,” says David, now 26. “I had to take what I learned in college and relay it to the business.”

In October 1999, Glenn and Matt Malouf of Salt Lake City formed a partnership and began construction of the bottling plant. A year later, Ralph Huntley & Son, Inc., of the Big Hole Valley, joined the project and Montaqua Springs LLC was formed.

Only one spring is used for bottling. Behind Glenn’s home, it flows about 700,000 gallons a day. The source is extremely protected. The recharge zone that lies behind it extends to Yellowstone National Park, so it is untouched by man’s influence. The water doesn’t even see sunlight until it’s in the plant. For added protection, a custom-built glass atrium has been built over the spring.

Distributors travel uphill on a gravel road to the steel plant. When built, it was important the plant wasn’t an eyesore, David says. Landscaping, including a large berm, is used to camouflage the building from the highway. Drivers are more likely to see the teepees of Glenn’s Hidden Valley Guest Ranch poking out from the hills than the plant.

Inside, the plant is nearly spotless. There is no hard-water buildup on the state-of-the-art equipment, which Glenn designed. The floors are bright and shiny. An in-house lab tests the water to ensure it’s as natural as possible. The only thing out of place in the large plant is a couple of scooters and a Harley – tension relievers for the Hegsteds.

Permitted by the FDA to bottle 10,000 gallons a day year-round, the plant is capable of producing each hour 18,000 half-liter bottles, 864 one-gallon bottles and 300 five-gallon bottles.

It takes only two to three people to run the fully automated plant at this point. Most of the plant work is done by Glenn and his stepson and plant manager, Mike Couch. The Hegsteds would like to get up to 10 or 12 employees some day, David says.

Looking back, David says, it was a mistake to build the bottling plant before the company had a marketing plan in place. But the family was eager to get started, he says.

David this past year has been working hard on creating relationships with distributors and others in the industry. Working with Red Bull energy drink, Montaqua is reaching out to active people at such events as mountain bike and snowmobile snocross competitions. The company also has been featured in industry trade magazines.

The business still has many hurdles to cross, but the Hegsteds are optimistic about their future. Right now, the goal is to expand distribution and see the brand become more recognizable with consumers, David says.

Looking back, Glenn says he regrets not starting this business sooner. “This water is so good that I should have started 10 years earlier,” he says.

Copyright 2003
Missoulian.com

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