The bottled water business has spent decades convincing us that the best water comes from somewhere far away. A glacier. A mountain spring. A pristine underground aquifer with an Italian-sounding name.
A1R water thinks the best place to look is straight up.
The South Florida startup, pronounced “air,” is preparing to launch a premium bottled water brand made from moisture pulled directly from the atmosphere. If that sounds a little like science fiction, that’s exactly what CEO Pete Carr thought when someone first encountered the technology.
“I had no idea what you were talking about,” Carr told Refresh Miami.
After 36 years in the beverage industry, including leadership roles at Red Bull, Diageo, Southern Glazer’s, and McCarthy, Carr was planning to retire. Then a trip to Dubai changed everything. Watching machines generate drinking water in the middle of the desert, he immediately saw something the engineers hadn’t considered.
“I said, ‘Why aren’t we selling bottled water?’” he recalled. Their response? “They said, ‘Why would you do that?’”
Carr called longtime colleague Ryan Bibbo, another beverage industry veteran, and together they saw an opportunity to bring atmospheric water generation into the consumer market.
“We’re beverage guys,” now COO Bibbo said. “We kept hearing about how pure the water is that’s created from this process. We said, ‘Why not put it in a can or a bottle and sell it?’”
Instead of drawing water from springs or aquifers, A1R water’s machines pull moisture from the air, filter it through hospital-grade HEPA systems, and separate out the water vapor. The result is an exceptionally pure source of water before minerals are added back.
“There’s not one bottled water you’re going to walk down and see that didn’t come from the ground,” Bibbo said. “Ours will not be from the ground.”
The company isn’t trying to compete with value brands. Carr’s ambition is far more upscale. “Our vision is to be the champagne of water,” he said.
A1R water plans to sell its products in aluminum cans and glass bottles, targeting luxury hotels, high-end restaurants, beach clubs, and nightlife venues rather than warehouse shelves.
That strategy is being built in South Florida. The company is completing a 110,000-square-foot headquarters and production facility in Hialeah, where it will manufacture both canned and bottled products. It currently employs 14 people in the U.S. and expects that number to grow significantly as production ramps up.
Miami is also where the brand plans to make its first splash. A1R water has already signed partnerships with Inter Miami, the Miami Heat, and the Florida Panthers as it introduces itself to consumers.
But bottled water is only one side of the business. The same atmospheric water generators can also be used by governments, military organizations, construction sites, off-grid communities, and disaster response teams. Several units are already operating at Funky Buddha Brewery in Fort Lauderdale, where visitors can watch drinking water being produced directly from humid Florida air.
For a state where hurricane season is a fact of life, Carr sees obvious potential. “It’s not if we’re having a hurricane in South Florida,” he said. “It’s when.” The company believes its systems could provide clean drinking water after storms while also serving industrial customers year-round.
It’s an ambitious plan: build a premium consumer brand while creating a second business around the technology behind it. Yet seeing the technology in action has become A1R water’s best sales pitch.
As Carr put it, “When people see the water coming off the machines… they’re like, ‘Got it. Sale closed’.”
Pictured above: A1R water Co-founders Pete Carr, CEO, at left, and Ryan Bibbo, COO.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
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- Miami wants AI. But our grid, water, and weather also have a say.
- D Squared aims to solve the power and water crisis one microgrid at a time
- AgTech startup Envonics acquired by company known for making water from air
