Competition may be on the horizon for the Island's only five gallon water business. The American company Le Bleu began advertising this week for an "aggressive entrepreneur for the exclusive bottling and licensing rights for the 5 gallon Le Bleu Ultra Pure Bottled Water".

While BGA has been distributing the company's smaller bottles of high purity steam distilled water in Bermuda for the past five years, Sandra Bass, vice president of the North Carolina based company said they now hope to see people drink their water at home as well as on the go.

"People buy bottled water when they are on the go, they buy small bottles from the grocery store and the convenience store when they drive around but we also use bottled water in our homes for making tea and coffee and cooking with and the 5 gallon business is really where the consumer saves money."

Five gallon bottles are used in conjunction with a cooler or dispenser installed in the home or office.

Currently PURE water is the only business on the Island to offer such a service, but Ms Bass said that her company has successfully brought competition into other places including St. Thomas and Grand Cayman Islands.

"Our technology for purifying water is a portable technology so we can go with any source water in the world and with our process produce the same water that we produce at home in North Carolina," she said.

The five gallon market represents about 50 percent of Le Bleu's overall business.

Ms Bass said that the company is not looking for an existing bottler specifically as the licensing agreement includes the equipment to make Le Bleu water.

"There are very few markets in the world that have just one five gallon company.

"It doesn't give the consumer much of a choice. We found the same to be true in Grand Cayman several years ago and we went there and offered the licensing of the business to the existing bottler there. He was not interested so we found someone there who was willing to invest in a plant and own a business and they just use our marketing support and our technology to produce the water."