Fiji Water

Fiji Water is a brand of bottled water derived, bottled, and shipped from Fiji. According to marketing materials, the water comes from an artesian aquifer in Viti Levu. Fiji Water is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It is available in 330 ml, 500 ml, 700 ml, , and 1.5 litre bottles. 
History.
Canadian businessman David Gilmour founded Fiji Water under the name Natural Waters of Viti Ltd. in 1996. Stewart and Lynda Resnick's Roll Global (since renamed to The Wonderful Company) acquired Fiji Water from Gilmour in 2004 for a reported US$50 million. The Resnicks' holding company also owns Teleflora, POM Wonderful and Suterra.
In 2009, Fiji Water had $85 million in sales.
In late 2010, Fiji Water acquired Justin Vineyards & Winery of Paso Robles, California, in an effort to spread their brand over a wider variety of products. It is best known for producing California style Bordeaux and Syrah wines distributed globally.
At the 76th Golden Globe Awards, Kelleth Cuthbert working as a Fiji brand ambassador generated nearly $12 million worth of brand exposure.
In Fiji.
Fiji Water bottles water from Fiji and ships it overseas. The water is sourced from Yaqara, on the north shore of Viti Levu, the largest island of Fiji.
In 2007–2008, disputes with the Fiji government over export duties led to legal cases, impounded shipments and a self-imposed industry-wide shutdown of Fijian water bottlers. The government eventually dropped its proposed 20-cent per litre tax. In December 2008, Fiji Water laid off 40 percent of its staff due to weakening sales.
In 2010, two years later, when the government tried to raise the tax again in 2010, Fiji Water protested by briefly firing all its employees and shutting down. “As usual, Fiji Water has adopted tactics that demonstrate that Fiji Water does not care about Fiji or Fijians,” Bainimarama stated at the time. The company ultimately accepted the tax hike, but the tension between its interests and those of Fiji have remained. In November 2010, Fiji deported Fiji Water director of external affairs, David Roth, for "interfering in Fiji's domestic affairs," leading to the resignation of interim defence and immigration minister, Ratu Epeli Ganilau. Shortly afterwards, an increase in the tax from one-third of a Fiji cent per litre to 15 cents per litre for producers over 15 million litres per month which at that point in time applied only to Fiji Water, led the company to shut down its Fiji Island offices on November 29, 2010. The purpose of the raise was to increase Fiji Water's tax contribution to the Fiji Government on the F$150 million (AUD 82 million) they exported each year from F$500,000 to F$22.6 million. 
The next step for the brand was thought to be a move to New Zealand. 
However, after threats from the government to give the well to another company, Fiji Water announced its intent to resume operations and accept the new tax levy.
In December 2010, Fiji Water's Fiji plant had 400 employees. Fiji Water has also established a foundation to provide water filters to rural Fiji communities, many of which lack access to clean water.
The company again laid off employees in 2011, and one Fiji resident, writing to New Zealand researcher Catherine Jones in 2012, noted that “FIJI Water have lost a lot [of] their creditability, they have made the boreholes, they have threatened to close, I think they lost a lot of creditability and dignity.” “FIJI Water draws upon the ‘exotic’ nature of Fiji to differentiate its product in a competitive global market,” a 2017 study of Fiji Water’s marketing by Australian researchers noted. “Yet the places its imagery is founded upon appear to have received proportionally low benefits.” For instance, despite a much-touted plan, announced in 2008, to reduce its carbon footprint by reducing its carbon emissions and planting natural forests, years later the company had planted only half the promised amount of acreage, and had no ETA on when the rest would arrive. The company also celebrated its “carbon negative” plan despite noting at the time that its emission reduction goals would not be met until 2037; the company website devoted to tracking its pursuit of these goals, however, was shut down sometime after 2010. Then there’s the issue of what many see as a two-faced relationship between Fiji Water and its local communities. The company has consistently invested in the communities it operates within, but the investments also serve to make its corporate goals more feasible. As Schad has noted, “Providing funding for the local kindergartens is of particular interest to FIJI Water since it enables parents that work at the factory to leave the home and attend work.”
Controversy with Cleveland.
In 2006, Fiji Water ran an advertisement stating, "The label says Fiji because it's not bottled in Cleveland". This was taken as an insult by the city's water department. The Cleveland Water Department ran tests comparing a bottle of Fiji Water to Cleveland tap water and some other national bottled brands. Fiji Water reportedly contained 6.31 micrograms of arsenic per litre, whereas the tap water of Cleveland contained none. In a 2015 test of Fiji Water bottled in November 2014, performed and reported by the company, the reported arsenic level was 1.2 micrograms per litre, below the FDA limit of 10 micrograms per litre.