Melbourne based start-up, Quest Beverages, continues to accelerate in its mission to rid Australia of plastic water bottles. The company’s flagship brand, Calm & Stormy, is growing from strength-to-strength, after almost being wiped out by Covid lockdowns. This month the brand has launched a new 500ml sparkling mineral water in an aluminium can, to add to its sustainably focused range.
The new can joins the 500ml Still Water can with ranging in 7-Eleven stores across Australia. The national rollout follows an initial trial of the 500ml still can in 200 7-Eleven stores in Melbourne and Sydney.
According to the founders of the brand, the trial was so successful that the retailer has agreed to ranging the Still and Sparkling 500ml cans across the 7-Eleven network nationally.
“When Covid hit, our business ground to a halt,” says founder Troy McKinna. “We had spent years building up our business with ranging at events, cafes, leisure and travel accounts that were focused on reducing their plastic footprint. The first we felt the effects of Covid was after the Melbourne Formula One, when the Ferrari caterer called to see if we could take stock back, because the team flew out early due to the cancellation. That same week a major music event in Sydney’s Domain cancelled a truck load of canned water. It was just devasting for us and all of our partners that had to shut-down.”
“We’ve worked hard to reinvent the business and to be honest, we’re now in a much stronger position than pre-Covid,” says co-founder Murray Raeburn. “Since Covid has locked down most of Australia we have pivoted into selling direct to households as they look for something more interesting to drink at home. A significant part of our business is now online sales, which is something we didn’t have prior to the pandemic.”
The founders are focussed on creating a range of drinks that are not just healthier for people, but also the planet.
Calm & Stormy favours aluminium cans because they are the most sustainable packaging format. The cans contain 70% recycled content, but the real beauty of aluminium is it can be recycled indefinitely into new cans as the material does not degrade.
Mr Raeburn believes aluminium cans are experiencing a resurgence in Australia, driven by growing consumer demand.
“In addition to the environmental benefits of cans, they chill quickly, and they block out oxygen and light which keeps drinks fresher for longer,” he says.
Plastic water bottles can be recycled, but the material degrades over time.
“Recycling cans make sense as it uses 95% less emissions to produce compared to producing a can from virgin materials.”
Calm & Stormy is a proud partner of 1% for the Planet, and invests 1% of its turnover to help reduce plastic in the oceans.
