Water to
your door
supplier profile
Service a key for DS Waters
By Don Sadler
IF YOU’RE LIKE many people, you’re paying
much closer attention to what you eat—and
drink. This includes the beverage most essential to life: water.
While most Americans can access water
with the simple turn of a faucet handle or tap,
well water isn’t always the tastiest option.
Instead, millions of people rely on home or
office delivery of high-quality bottled water.
“A century ago, getting clean drinking
water was one of the first things doctors and
pharmacists recommended when people got
sick,” says Dillon Schickli, CEO of DS Waters,
an Atlanta-based company that produces and
distributes bottled water products directly to
homes, offices and retail establishments
across the U.S. “So these companies started
hauling spring water, and, over time, water
delivery became a cottage industry.”
Customers today opt for bottled water ser-
vice for many different reasons: consistent
water taste and quality, of course, as well as
safety and environmental concerns. “Our cus-
tomers can always have a supply of 5-gallon
water bottles on hand in case of an emergency,
like a storm or a boil-water order,” Schickli
says. “Also, using a bottled water service is
environmentally friendly, as the returned bot-
tles are cleaned and resused about 50 times and
are nearly all recycled at the end of their use.”
Tapping into customer service
DS Waters was incorporated in 1985,
but some of its brands—such as Alhambra®,
Athena®, Belmont Springs®, Deep Rock®,
Hinckley Springs® and Mount Olympus®—go
back more than 100 years.
Schickli and two business partners bought
DS Waters in 2005. At the time, the company
was struggling to operate efficiently after con-
solidating about a third of the fragmented U.S.
home and office water delivery market.
Company: DS Waters of America, Inc.
CEO: Dillon Schickli (pictured above)
Number of employees:
5,000 +
Address:
5660 New Northside Drive, Suite 500
Atlanta, GA 30328
Contact: 1-888-432-4823;
costcowater.com
Products available at Costco:
Home and office delivery of bottled
water available through Costco Services.
Visit Costco.com, search: Water8
BORIS PHOTOGRAPHY
Comments about Costco:
“I have been a loyal member of Costco
for more than 15 years. They are masters
of customer service and management
of their membership, focusing on delivering value and great service every day.”
—Dillon Schickli
Liquid assets
As you’d probably expect, stringent stan-
dards and procedures are in place to ensure
that bottled water is pure and safe. “Producing
crisp, refreshing, great-tasting water is much
harder than it looks,” says Schickli. “The bot-
tled water industry is regulated by the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, and we are
required to meet very strict standards.”
DS Waters is taking an active role in the
fight against breast cancer by donating
proceeds from the sale of their Athena water
brand to breast cancer awareness, research
and education. The company has committed
to contributing more than $2 million to the
fight against breast cancer via the American
Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure
and other charitable organizations.
JULY 2012 ;e Costco Connection 45
Don Sadler (
don.sadler@comcast.net) is a
freelance writer in Atlanta.
