The founder of Rejuvenation Water, a London-based functional water brand, says the organisers of the Taste of London have left a very bad taste in his mouth after they bowed to pressure from their show partner, a Fijian water brand, which has blocked them from exhibiting.
Rejuvenation Water, which has its head office in Battersea, had signed a contract to exhibit its new sparkling water range at the Taste of London event (Regent’s Park – 19th to 23rd June 2019), but the company has since learnt that the contract has been torn up after the Fijian Water brand, owned by a big American firm, vetoed their attendance.
Kris Ingham, founder, Rejuvenation Water says: “Despite our relative size, London location and differentiated product, the organisers of The Taste of London have clearly buckled under the influence of their Fijian Water partner, who must have felt threatened by our presence at the show. I’m furious that the Taste of London, one of London’s premier food and drink festivals has allowed a brand that is bottled half-way around the globe to wield the axe over a relatively small London-based brand like ours. We’d originally agreed to compromise with the Fijian Water partner, to only bring our sparkling hydration+ canned range but, at the eleventh hour, we were told our entire attendance has been vetoed. We were looking forward to introducing visitors at the Taste of London to our innovative new range and preparation was well underway.”
Undeterred, Ingham says: “I will not bow to bully boy tactics from bigger brands and, after recently securing a listing for our new sparkling water range in both Ocado and Tesco, I’m confident that we will have our day in the sun. I won’t ever return to the Taste of London after what has been a really poor handling of the situation by the organisers and the extremely unfair treatment we have been subjected to, especially given our roots are in London not Fiji.”
