#FlashbackFriday: For World Water Day, Some Drops of History About Exchange Water Plants

This week’s Flashback Friday falls on World Water Day, observed each March 22 to promote the responsible use of water and access to safe water for everyone.

One of the biggest water events in Exchange history happened in summer 1998, when the Exchange opened a Culligan Drinking Water plant at Gruenstadt Army Depot.

The facility was the only one if its kind in Europe that was capable of filling 1-liter and ½-liter bottles as well a 5-liter bottles designed to sit atop Culligan water coolers. The water was delivered to U.S. forces across Europe.

Lother Schmitt, then-chief of Facilities Management at Gruenstadt Depot, told the Exchange Post at the time that the plant was completed in six months and was able to fill 3,600 1-liter bottles an hour.

The Gruenstadt plant proved so successful that in late 2002, a second, smaller plant opened in Vicenza, Italy. A few months later, on July 23—during a celebration marking the 50^th anniversary of the Exchange’s Gruenstadt Depot operations—a new, larger Culligan plant opened at Gruenstadt.

The new Gruenstadt plant averaged producing 8,500 1-liter bottles an hour, more than twice the output of the original plant. But it could reach up to 10,000 bottles an hour—which it did, not long after it opened, when demand soared during a heat wave in Europe. The same year, the plant sent more than 31,000 1-liter bottles daily to troops in Iraq, where temperatures were also scorching. By early 2004, a third plant opened in Kuwait to provide high-quality water to troops deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

During the early days of the COVID pandemic, the Gruenstadt plant stepped up production to continue serving the military community. During the week of March 23, 2020, the plant produced 800,000 liters of bottled water—roughly 10 times the usual amount at the time. (The Gruenstadt bakery also increased its output, producing more than 125,000 buns and 31,500 tortillas—25% more than usual—the same week.)

While much of Europe remained under stay-at-home orders during the pandemic’s early months, the Gruenstadt and Vicenza provided bottled water to Exchange stores throughout the region, and made home deliveries as well. Then-Senior Vice President of Europe/Southwest Asia region Jason Rosenberg (now Exchange President) presented his coin to water delivery associate Ellis Harvey, who regularly delivered to Rosenberg’s home.

Today, the Gruenstadt and Vicenza plants produce Nature’s Recipe, an Exchange private-label water brand launched in 2014, as well as Culligan water. In 2022, in a collaborative effort with the Defense Commissary Agency (DeCA), the Gruenstadt plant began producing Freedom’s Choice, DeCA’s private-label brand.

Source: Exchange Post archives