Question:
If you're a company that sells bottled water, Asia is slobberingly attractive. It has millions of people who distrust tap water, whose living standards are rising and whose current levels of consumption of the clear packaged stuff leave plenty of room for growth. Think China, Indonesia, India, Thailand--and that's for starters.

comments?

Answer: It's a $3 billion market and the stakes are high. Take China: The average consumer drinks only 2 litres of bottled water a year, according to Euromonitor International, compared with 45 in the United States and 111 in France. But over the next five years the amount of bottled water downed in China is projected to grow 150%. "In most cases in the region, you could say that the right moment to act is as soon as possible," says Garth Britton, director for Asia, Oceania, and Africa at Perrier Vittel, Nestlй's water arm.

Danone executives claim their hard-charging acquisition strategy in Asia has already left global leader Nestlй in the dust. "Danone has really won on two key fronts, to control the largest and fastest-growing markets in the region," says Simon Israel, Danone's senior vice-president for the Asia-Pacific region. Danone's majority stakes in the market leaders in China and Indonesia give it a 25% market share in the region, he says.