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I have chosen the bottled water industry in Germany. This industry is very competitive from local producers and global companies such as Coca-Cola. The company I chose has a high market share of 14%. Gerolsteiner has a sales turnover of 276 million euros, most of it coming in from exports.

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The political influence into the soft drinks industry is very high. Many European countries and the EU are debating about an introduction of a sugar tax if drinks are about a certain percentage of sugar. This would impact the industry largely because drinks would lose in preference due to the higher price. The Sugar tax discussions has already brought some benefits since many brands including the company I have chosen, have launched drinks with less sugar and more natural ingredients which contain glucose; natural sugars.

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An environmental impact into the industry is the packaging. Plastic bottles have to have a green dot at the back label which indicates PET bottles. These can be used several time unlike other plastic bottles. This interference costs the manufacturers more money in the purchase or production of their bottles. In order to recycle more efficiently and receive the plastic bottles back to reuse them, the government has introduced recycling machines where people receive money back per bottle which was added to the purchasing price. This gives consumers an incentive to put more effort into recycling.

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The social influence into the industry is the more health conscious mind of consumers. Gerolstein and other bottles drink manufacturers have launched products into the soft drink industry. Gerolstein has launched fruit drinks with their highly mineral natural spring water. However, it was essential that they had to reduce the levels of sugars. As the nation’s leading manufacturer of mineral water, health conscious consumers trust Gerolsteiner to produce healthy and natural products. As such, the brand’s carbonates grew to over 50 million off-trade liters sold in 2012, a 7.8% increase from 2007.

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Technology has a huge impact on the industry of bottled water. There are many requirements that bottled water has to meet before it can be distributed to the consumers. Therefore, the drinks manufacturers such as Gerolsteiner have their own laboratory which ensures quality standards. This also gets checked by external laboratories which also control any other company. Through this step, governments ensure a high level of bottled water with no contaminations.

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Gerolsteiner has to face many laws in both manufacturing and exporting process. The German law has high quality standards in bottled water so that there are no bacterias and other non-hygienic substances. Since Gerolsteiner exports a lot of their products, they face many laws from other countries and have to adapt to them. One example is that the US law wants bottled water in 1,5 litre glass bottles which Gerolsteiner had to buy in order to enter the American market.

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There are several different competitors for Gerolsteiner within Germany. The three main supermarket chains Lidl, Rewe and Aldi have their own home-made brand. These are cheaper than bottled water from suppliers and therefore, these three have a market share of 41%. However, the advantage that Gerolsteiner has compared to other companies in the industry is their source of water. They use highly volcanic spring water which gives of water with many minerals such as magnesium and calcium. This gives theme a big competitive advantage especially since society is looking for healthy and natural products to consume. The weakness of Gerolsteiner is that they do not have the brand image that Lidl and Aldi may have and that these supermarket chains can offer their home-made products cheaper than those of external suppliers. This has led to Gerolsteiner to export their products to other countries and their supermarket chains to become the leading sparkling water supplier which generates a high percentage of their sales turnover.

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For Gerolsteiner to become more Environmentally friendly, the German government implemented the PET, the green dot, bottle. This means that plastic bottles were newly constructed, so they can be reused several times. This reduces the toxic gases to recycle plastic. This got implemented for both, domestic and international companies.

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Gerolsteiner’s main stakeholders are the regional government, owner and consumers. The local council has already allowed the company to expand the company’s facility to employ more workers. This has also allowed them to increase their products produced, in order to cover all demands abroad of Germany. The second stakeholder is the owner. Gerolsteiner belongs to the Bitburger brewery. They want the company to give of profits which it does. Also, the brewery’s big consumers have helped to establish contact for Gerolsteiner’s exports. The last one is the consumer, because apart from their bottled water, they have many other drinks in their product range. They have to meet the taste of the consumer in order to make a new launched product successful.