Natural Mineral Waters Europe (NMWE), representing the interests of over five hundred natural mineral and spring water producers in Europe, has elected Alessandro Pasquale, chief executive and owner of Mattoni 1873, as its new president for the next two years.
Mr Pasquale, a Swiss-Italian national, is the second generation to lead the family business. The father of two children has assumed leadership of Mattoni 1873 from his father in 2007 and has expanded the family business from Czech Republic to eight European countries, employing more than 3,000 people.
Mr Pasquale is passionate about natural mineral water, with special attention to source protection and packaging sustainability. He has been a strong advocate of circular economy principles both at the national level and within the European Union for many years.
“Natural mineral and spring water producers provide citizens with natural and unique products. We work to safeguard their precious water resources by protecting the catchment areas around their sources to assure the purity of our mineral waters. Caring for the environment also means promoting biodiversity and making our business sustainable and circular. For decades, we have been embarking on a pathway towards sustainability and today, our sector has a unique opportunity to become fully circular. Our packaging, whether glass and PET, is fully recyclable and already achieving comparatively high collection rates. With the right EU policy measures in place, we can reach full circularity. Those measures include the implementation of effective and efficient collection solutions across Europe and establishing priority access to our collected and recycled packaging material to allow us to close the loop,” saide Mr Pasquale.
The new president will be supported by new board members, also announced by NMWE today. They are: Paco Vallejo, President of ANEABE, Spain; Gavin Partington, Director General of the British Soft Drinks Association; and Antoine Portmann, General Manager of Evian Volvic International at Danone Waters. Jürgen Reichle, chief executive of Verband Deutscher Mineralwasser (VDM), takes over as Treasurer.
