SANT’ANNA WATER Fonti di Vinadio Spa, which bottles and sells Sant’Anna di Vinadio mineral water, was set up in 1996 by Alberto Bertone, owner and Chairman of the company. The company ethos is based on a deep conviction of the high potential of the water which flows from the mountains towering over Vinadio, in the heart of the Maritime Alps. Today Sant’Anna water is market leader: 150 million euros in revenues and 650 million bottles sold in 2007. 50 thousand square metres of plant. 190km of stainless steel piping. 310 thousand bottles produced every hour. Automated storage management with 18 laser driven vehicles. Rail-based logistics all over Italy. These are the facts and figures of the Vinadio company, the first in Europe to experiment with a special vegetal bio-bottle, due to be launched shortly on the market.

ORGANOLEPTIC QUALITIES The goodness of Vinadio water has been known since the 16th century, the time in which the first historic documentation speaks of the valley’s springs. The water’s fame has spread thanks to the tales of the pilgrims who rise to the Shrine of Saint Anna each year, the shrine which gives its name to the water produced by Fonti di Vinadio Spa. To drink a sip of this water from the fountain of the square is a tradition for all those who tackle the long, arduous climb up to the highest shrine in Europe. Sant’Anna water has achieved extraordinary results in terms of its values of lightness (fixed residue 23.1 mg/L), one of the lowest in the world, receiving authorisation for use in the diet of newborns and low sodium diets (only 0.9 mg/L of sodium). The production process is guaranteed by the latest generation bottling systems.

THE FIRST MINERAL WATER IN A BIO-BOTTLE Not even a drop of petroleum is used by the new Sant’Anna eco-bottle! Today Sant’Anna water is the first private company to combine an eco-friendly policy with an initiative of such importance. Over a year ago, Alberto Bertone decided to experiment bottling the mineral water with an innovative material derived totally from a raw vegetal material. He took it upon himself to import it directly to Italy from the United States to use the bio-plastic to produce the moulds, the “embryo” of the bottle, with a shape similar to a test tube. Inside the plant of Vinadio this is heated and blown to assume the shape of a traditional bottle, then cooled, washed and filled. To give life to the experimentation, the mineral water in bio-bottles has been produced in 1 million units and subjected to many months of tests to verify its characteristics and behaviour. The tests have given excellent results: natural plastic obtained from the fermentation of sugars of plants, rather than petroleum, guarantees identical performance to that of traditional plastics. www.santanna.it