Bottled water prices to rise :: Khaleej Times

Quoting:

A price hike is underway for all types of bottled waters from five gallon, 1-litre to 600ml manufactured by a number of companies in the UAE, following the recent 30 per cent hike in fuel price which companies claim has led to increased cost of transportation and hit business severely.

The percentage of price hike is yet to be determined, but, will hopefully be declared by next week following an upcoming meeting of 15 leading bottled water companies which are also members of the Emirates Union for Bottled Water.

Haji Al Hajiri, General Manager of Zulal Water, affiliated to Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority, confirmed that within the next few days consumers will witness a hike in the price of various sizes of bottled water.

“Consumers must know that we have decided to introduce a further hike in the price of selling bottled water not for the sake of yielding more profit, but to offset the loss faced due to increase in price of raw materials and transportation costs, ” Hajiri told Khaleej Times.

He disclosed that 90 per cent of their profit is offset by the transportation expenses incurred by water bottled companies using a large fleet of vehicles for delivery to supermarkets, companies and homes. This is a common problem faced by all the bottled water companies and are, therefore, forced to increase the price to defray the losses and meet up with high production cost.”

Good fodder for a basic demand and supply example. Except for that bit about the upcoming meeting of producers to discuss price.