A group of British investors is selling a 30% stake in the Bucharest company Apa Staretului (Father Superior''s Water) in a bid to raise the 500,000 euros it needs to launch a premium mineral water brand associated with the image of the Targoviste Archbishopric.
"This business will also benefit the Targoviste Archbishopric. The product in question is high quality non-carbonated water. It will not be holy water, however," said Costel Stoica, spokesman for the Romanian Patriarchate.
The company says it plans to export some of its water production to European Union countries. After launching on the Romanian market, where luxury mineral water products are poorly represented, the company also plans to launch the brand in Great Britain following the successful example of existing businesses in beer, wine and cheese products that use images of abbeys and monastic orders.
The investors in the company explained that "a brand with a name linked to the spiritual space of the Orthodox church will be a novelty on the European Union market, particularly because it will be something exotic in what are mainly Catholic and Protestant countries".
"We will focus on the British and Canadian markets, as well other Orthodox countries like Greece and Bulgaria," said RJM Edwards, chairman of the board of directors of the British firm, the majority shareholder.
He says the idea for the business came to him while taking a walk. dan.zavoianu@zf.ro
