 His latest enterprise could be headed for another high
watermark. But Glenn Bailey, founder of the Canadian Springs Water Company, is again paddling upstream against prevailing market currents.
Once dubbed Vancouver's waterboy because of his Canadian Springs involvement, the 41-year-old visionary is banking on his new business,
WA-2!, formerly known as H2O Co., taking BC's water industry to the next level.
"A year ago we were a little bit of smoldering grass in the field. Now the wind has picked up and created a huge fire. Word of mouth is
traveling fast. People are starting to buy into and believe in our product. We are going to break 1,000 accounts real quick" he says.
"Canadian Springs was a Vancouver success story and WA-2! will be another one. We are proud to be a Canadian company”. Water is a recurrent
theme in Bailey's life. His first job experience was washing cars at the North Shore's Oasis Car Wash. He proceeded by dabbling in sports
retail and decided to change his business direction when at 23 he was introduced to the water cooler.
The idea of bottled water struck a chord with him and despite prevailing sentiments at the time that Vancouverites would never buy into
the idea of bottled water. Bailey believed purifying water and selling it would be a water revelation.
“A lot of people thought that we were nuts to do bottled water. At that time a city like Seattle, which has a similar demographic, a
similar environment and a similar water situation, had over 20,000 water coolers. And our periodical section in the Vancouver library was
overflowing with articles of how bad our tap water was. We put two and two together. There was a sleeping giant here and so basically we
woke it up, he says.
Bailey and his partner (and childhood friend) co-founded Canadian Springs in 1985. Over the next ten years, they built the company into
an enterprise with 230 employees, over 32,000 accounts and annual revenues exceeding $14 million.
In 1990 they won the Canadian Young Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Federal Development Business Bank. In 1996, they sold
Canadian Springs. Bailey has since developed many incredible companies including Third Storey Holdings, Liberty Furniture, Hudson Furniture,
Old House Construction and Guinness Business Centre. His latest venture returns Bailey to the water world. He incorporated H2O Co. in July
2001. For the first year, the company did test markets only; in mid-2002 the product was first offered to the public.
The company recently made the name change to WA-2! to better reflect its unique product and service.
WA-2! combines a purification system with a bottled water cooler The WA-2! system is identical in form to the traditional water cooler,
but it requires no replacement bottles. Municipal water is re-directed through a state-of-the-art purification process and is then stored in
a bottle atop the cooler. This allows the end-user to view the beverage prior to consumption.
“Everyone thinks it is a regular water cooler without all the hassles.” Says Bailey. “A line one cm in diameter, similar to a computer
line, links the purification system to the water cooler. The installation process is simple and arranged so that the line is hidden to the
eye. A system can be set up in very little time.” Also popular in many residences is a purification system that directs the purified water
to a sink spigot.
His water evolution includes a purification process that removes sediments, chemicals, odors, contaminants, minerals and salts from tap
water. It offers premium quality water by using a reverse osmosis process. In reverse osmosis, water molecules are forced through a
semi-permeable membrane. Contaminants are flushed down a drain while the high-quality purified water is stored in the bottle. The process is
used by many  bottled water companies, and it offers the
highest level of purification available, removing up to 99% of the contaminants and bacteria in
drinking water.
When we were in the bottled water business most companies used the Reverse Osmosis systems to purify their water. WA-2! Uses the exact
same purification process; however, improvements in technology have enabled us to install a miniature version of the purification system
right at the customers home or office providing the opportunity to purify the water and produce an incredible product right on site. At that
time bottling water was the best thing to do just like (when) typewriters were the best thing. Now we use computers, so WA-2! is the
computer. It is the evolution of the industry, Bailey says.
Other WA-2! benefits include unlimited consumption for a monthly flat fee, saving space formerly used for bottle storage, the elimination of
potential injury from lifting and loading heavy water bottles and, because the WA-2! system has a permanent water tank, it eliminates
deliveries.
The WA-2! system also has an environmental appeal: no empty water bottles filling up landfill sites, fewer delivery trucks on the road and
no chemicals used in the water tank cleaning process. The system is serviced and sanitized throughout the year by WA-2! staff.
Bailey estimates that anyone or any company going through three or more bottles a month using a traditional bottled water service will
save money with the WA-2! system. “We have an account downtown where 16 water coolers are linked to one purification system. “ The biggest
challenge for the young company,” says Bailey, “is convincing people to make the switch. You can try and convince your customer about your
product until you're blue in the face but they won't make the leap of faith until it gains market acceptance. People often don’t understand
the system so we let them try it for themselves on a free trial basis. We do this because we have total confidence in the product.
Once we get our product into a place, we have a very high conversion rate. People call us to tell us it’s the best thing since sliced
bread. People who get our product; really get it.” Bailey plans to market WA-2! internationally. He envisions a future in which tap water
will be relegated to utility use only. The weaning out of tap water accompanied by the current boom of the bottled water industry foretells
a highly
promising future for WA-2!. †According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, on a worldwide level the bottled water industry generates about
$85-billion annually. Canadians collectively consume over 700 million litres of bottled water per year and compel 71 bottlers in this
country to produce shipments valued at $337-million.
The bottled water industry began growing in the early 1980s and its growth has been explosive since then. Annual consumption rose from
527 to 703 million litres per year between 1995 and 1998 (Canadian Bottled Water Association, CBWA, 1999). This rise in per capita
consumption exceeds that of many other beverages during the 1990s, such as coffee, tea, apple juice and milk. In the last decade bottled
water has moved beyond the niche market into the mainstream market and become a basic staple to many Canadians. Along with strong increases
in production, Statistics Canada indicates that there has also been a significant increase in employment in the bottled water industry.
Employment grew from 500 employees in 1988 to nearly 1600 by 1997. On a smaller scale, however still similar, WA-2! has already
experienced an employment growth. In a year and a half, the company has grown from two-person-company to one that has 10 employees. In
Bailey’s eyes, this is just the beginning; this is definitely a parade that wonpt be rained on. Attitude is everything to Bailey, who has
spent his life dealing with a learning difference. Dyslexia, he says, has made him a stronger person.
It was hard not being able to read as fast as I wanted to and always having my mind going faster than my processing made it difficult for
me to comprehend at times. I used to mask my learning disability with humor until I was able to face it. But humor allowed me to stay
positive and dyslexia made me a better person. It made me try harder. I learned techniques to overcome it. When I focused and learned the
power of concentration things really took off. It made me really want to succeed at whatever I did. Overcoming adversity and excelling to be
the best you can be is an ongoing goal. And part of Baileyps success is rooted in his desire to be a benefit to society.
Bailey wants to be used as a source for improvement. People can focus on the negative or the positive. People can live in the past or
they can live in the present and future. I always try to focus on the positive, and I always try to live my life in the present and the
future. I just want to be a benefit to society and I want my family and the people in my company to be a benefit. I am constantly working to
improve things. The reason we started WA-2! is because the product just makes sense. And what better way to improve things than with
something that we need daily?
The human body is 70% water. Drinking water prevents dehydration and helps to control weight. It also lowers the risk of heart disease,
removes impurities that cause skin problems and increases productivity.
The Canadian food guide advises that people should drink at least eight glasses of water per day. Bailey believes the type of water
matters. He says reverse osmosis is the crËme de la crËme of the water world and, with the exception of distillation, it is the only known
process that can effectively remove toxic metals, asbestos, pesticides, herbicides, fluorine, colloidal matter, radio-active elements and
microorganisms.
WA-2!’s General Manager Lori Braha says WA-2! was a natural progression for Bailey. Glenn is enthusiastic and definitely a visionary. He
sees the opportunity and he sees what things can be. He’s also a motivator and he is always pumping everybody up, Says Bailey: I have always
been fortunate to have incredible people in my life who have always supported me. I love positive people. I am a very busy, distractible,
happy-go-lucky, persistent person with a receding hairline.
For further information on WA-2! visit www.WA2.ca or call 604-689-4009. |