The tiny rural South African town vital to Woolworths’ premium drinks, water, and even ice
The rural farming town of Normandien at the foothills of the Klein Drakensberg in northern KwaZulu-Natal is home to THIRSTI Water’s bottling plant.
The settlement itself consists of only a handful of buildings, a shop and a police station, but it has become an important source of some of Woolworths’ premium drinks, bottled water and even ice products sold across South Africa.
Normandien is home to the natural spring that gave rise to THIRSTI Water, one of South Africa’s better-known premium bottled water brands.
The spring first drew attention in the early 1990s when local resident Annerie Van Niekerk began bottling and selling the water to nearby communities.
At the time, bottled water was still largely unfamiliar to South African consumers, but demand reportedly grew quickly due to its taste and mineral composition.
According to the company’s account of its origins, Van Niekerk supported herself through sales of spring water before the family eventually sold the farm, and production ceased for several years.
The spring later came back into focus when the new owner of the property encountered people travelling long distances to collect water directly from the source.
After tasting the water himself, the owner decided to commercialise it, leading to the launch of THIRSTI Water.
Speaking in an interview with BizNews, THIRSTI founder and CEO Rob Hoatson said that over the years, the company has expanded far beyond its rural KwaZulu-Natal origins.
Hoatson said the business has developed a major long-term partnership with Woolworths, becoming a national supplier of numerous Woolworths-branded beverages and related products.
Speaking during a tour of THIRSTI’s new R300 million bottling facility in Tulbagh in the Western Cape, Hoatson said the company’s focus has been on building infrastructure capable of supplying products at scale while maintaining quality.
Although the company has invested heavily in the Western Cape operation, Hoatson said THIRSTI still operates its original Normandien farm and water source near Newcastle.
THIRSTI produces more than 100 products for Woolworths
He described Woolworths as one of the company’s most important strategic partners.
“We have a long-term strategic partnership with Woolworths. We produce a lot of beverages for them, probably more than 100 products, as their sole national supplier,” he said.
According to Hoatson, THIRSTI manufactures a wide range of Woolworths-branded products, including bottled and flavoured water, soft drinks, and mixers, supplied to stores across the country.
“The Woolies water naturally comes from us. Woolworths water has got no THIRSTI on it, it’s Woolworths water, but we produce it for them to their standard and supply it to them nationally,” he said.
The relationship extends beyond beverages. Hoatson said the broader family business also supplies Woolworths with beef and lamb through its agricultural operations and Karoo farming activities.
“It’s a very important relationship that we’ve had for many, many years, and we value it greatly,” he said.
One of the latest additions to the partnership is Woolworths’ premium spring water ice product, which was introduced after an initial trial in selected stores roughly 18 months ago.
“Woolworths brought us the ice opportunity, and we decided to do it on a very small scale and trial it in a few stores, and it went really, really well,” Hoatson said.
Unlike ordinary bagged ice, the product is made with spring water sourced from Normandien and packaged with specialised Italian equipment in resealable bags.
To support production, THIRSTI built a dedicated ice manufacturing facility. Water is transported approximately 300 kilometres by tanker from the Normandien source, then frozen and distributed through Woolworths’ cold-chain network.
“The standards that Woolworths expect are incredibly high. I think Woolworths has got about 120 to 140 food technologists in their business,” he said.
According to Hoatson, Woolworths also closely protects its private-label products and supplier relationships.
“Our relationship with Woolworths is 11 or 12 years deep, and that’s been our understanding from day one. We’ve honoured that, and they’ve honoured it back, and so the relationship has worked.”
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