BCI Holdings Seeks Buyer for Arrowhead Bottled Water Unit

BCI Holdings, which acquired the Beatrice food- and consumer-products company last year, said Monday that it has hired Shearson Lehman Bros., an investment banking firm, to help sell Beatrice’s Arrowhead bottled water business.

The sale of Monterey Park-based BCI Arrowhead Drinking Water, the nation’s leading processor and distributor of bottled water, is part of a plan to restructure Beatrice and pay off some of the debt from BCI Holdings’ $6.2-billion acquisition, said Charles Long, a BCI spokesman.

BCI Arrowhead sells products under the Arrowhead brand name in California and Arizona, the Ozarka brand name in Texas and the Great Bear brand name in 11 Northeastern states. BCI Arrowhead has 2,400 employees, 1,500 of whom are in California, said Arthur Peever, the company’s president and chief executive.

Long declined to reveal the company’s financial data, saying only: “Sales and earnings have been steadily growing for some time.” One published report placed the company’s sales at about $200 million, adding that the business easily could fetch between $250 million and $300 million.

Beatrice probably will have little trouble finding a buyer for BCI Arrowhead, said Gary Hemphill, managing editor of Beverage Industry, a monthly trade magazine.

“It’s a pretty fast-growing industry,” although the explosive sales growth is expected to slow eventually, Hemphill said. “Companies like Anheuser-Busch have jumped into it,” he said.

The bottled water business is the fastest-growing segment of the beverage industry, recording sales increases of 10% to 12% a year, said William F. Deal, executive vice president of the International Bottled Water Assn.

Industry sales reached an estimated $1.2 billion last year.