Fiji Water pays the Fijian Government $100million in taxes annually.
The parent company of FIJI Water, The Wonderful Company’s executive director and general manager Craig Cooper revealed this at the Fiji Institute of Chartered Accountants convention at the Crowne Plaza in Nadi, which ended yesterday.
Fiji Water with its sister company Neptune Pacific Direct Line (Neptune Shipping) employs a total of 800 Fijians.
“We are one of the largest investors in Fiji and we have been here for decades, we love the country, we love the people and we feel there’s lots of opportunities for us to make in this country. We also have good relationship with the Government,” he said.
“People buy FIJI Water because of the taste and that’s what we’ve found in our surveys throughout and this is Fiji’s most famous export with 80 per cent to the United States.”
Mr Cooper said Neptune Shipping has been the major channel of exporting FIJI Water products to America.
“We bought Neptune Shipping in 2007 when it had three ships and we have grown the business over the years with 11 ships now and as a result of our ownership, we have had several weekly export services out of Fiji and this has helped with importing of products,” he said.
“Before we invested and purchased Neptune, we faced unscheduled shipping services.”
Mr Cooper said the shipping service had also benefited other businesses that imported goods from America as they offered lower freight rates creating competition with other service providers.
He also informed members of the Fiji Institute of Chartered Accountants at the annual congress in Nadi that FIJI Water had purchased a piece of land in Vanua Levu with new plans to diversify Fiji’s agriculture sector to drive economic developments.
And in anticipation of this development, the company took a team of Biosecurity officials to California to inspect the nursery and seedlings prepared for a nursery in the North.
“Our seedlings will come in from California and we plan to plant lime, mangoes and start with domestic markets as we grow our own seedlings,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica described the investment by the company as one that would greatly benefit Fijians.
