Perrier’s Share of U.S. Market Off About 50%

Perrier’s slice of the U.S. imported mineral water market fell by half last year after benzene contamination forced a global recall, Source Perrier SA Chairman Jacques Vincent said today.

Perrier’s share of the imported water market has dropped from 44.8% to 20.7% since February, 1990, when traces of the cancer-causing chemical were found in some bottles.

But Vincent told the newspaper La Tribune de l’Expansion that U.S. sales were at about the levels anticipated by company officials after the recall of 160 million bottles worldwide damaged Perrier’s reputation for purity.

The contamination of the sparkling water resulted from a dirty filter on a gas line used to add carbonation to the water at Perrier’s underground spring at Vergez in southern France.

Overall sales in 1990 for the Source Perrier group rose 17%, Vincent said, thanks to increased sales of its other labels like Calistoga and Poland Springs.