Isle water company
posts loss

By Rick Daysog
Star-Bulletin

Hawaiian Natural Water Co. has posted a loss of $884,000 for second-quarter 1997.

The Honolulu-based bottler said last week the second-quarter net loss compares with a loss of $291,000 for the quarter ending June 30, 1996. On a per-share-basis, the company lost 33 cents, up from 18 cents in the year-earlier quarter.

For the first six months of 1997, the company has lost $1.4 million, or 63 cents a share, up from a loss of $520,000, or 33 cents a share, in the same period last year.

But Hawaiian Natural Water said net sales increased 24.9 percent to $283,000 in the recently completed quarter from second quarter 1996's $227,000.

For the first half, sales totaled $500,000, a 16.6 percent rise from the year-earlier's $429,000, the company said.

Founded by local entrepreneur Marcus Bender, the company's president and chief executive officer, Hawaiian Natural Water bottles and retails natural spring water under the label "Hawaiian Springs."

The company operates a bottling plant on 14.5 acres at Keaau on the Big Island and draws its water from a well at the base of Mauna Loa.

In May, the company went public, raising about $8 million through an initial public offering.