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Texas Natural Rainwater Harvesting & Bottling<\/a> LLC, reaching profitability by selling bottled rainwater. More specifically, 60,000 bottles of the product provided by Mother Nature have been sold at dozens of local businesses and organizations since April.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Now Schraub is looking to build three more bottling plants in Texas to expand his business and capitalize on the business model he\u2019s refined.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to broaden this,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve done very little advertising, and it\u2019s amazing how the sales have escalated very fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas Rain is already sold at\u00a0 Nationally, the bottled water business generated $11.1 billion in sales during 2008. From 1997 to 2007, the U.S. per-capita consumption of bottled water more than doubled from 13.5 gallons per year to 29 gallons, according to the Virginia-based International Bottled Water Association.<\/p>\n But the sharp increase has created millions of used bottles and a recycling problem, prompting municipalities to consider banning or taxing plastic water bottles. Texas Rain uses bottles that are biodegradable and recyclable. When placed in an environment with microbes, the bottles biodegrade within five years, Schraub said.<\/p>\n Before Texas Rain, Schraub was an engineer for a string of semiconductor companies, including\u00a0 When Schraub later saw that rainstorm during his drive to Corpus Christi, he realized that customers could subsidize the installation cost by selling the rainwater that runs off solar panels. He then enlisted 14 private investors to pitch in $450,000 to get the business going.<\/p>\n In Smithville, Texas Rain\u2019s enormous warehouse is \u2014 quite literally \u2014 generating business from top to bottom.<\/p>\n The roofs, which cover 50,000 square feet, are slanted to capture rainwater in 11 tanks totaling 140,000 gallons. One inch of rain generates 28,000 gallons, which means Schraub needs just 10 inches of rain annually to produce enough to operate his business.<\/p>\n The Smithville rain is filtered three times before it\u2019s treated with ultraviolet light and ozonation. It is then bottled and labeled just beneath the roof that captured the rain. In September, the start of the bottled water industry\u2019s slow season, Schraub plans to begin installing a bottle-making machine that would enable the Smithville plant to be entirely self-contained by early 2011.<\/p>\n Private-labeled bottles for business are also giving him an unexpected boost. Texas Rain can design and adhere its customers\u2019 labels on site. As a result, area restaurants and other businesses can buy \u201ctheir own\u201d brand of water for about 58 cents ($14 per case) per half-liter bottle.<\/p>\n The Schlotzsky\u2019s restaurant in Bastrop began carrying private-labeled Texas Rain water in April and now sell 10 cases per month compared with three cases per month of its previous supplier\u2019s water, owner Laura Merritt said. The environmentally friendly bottles were a big attraction. Also, customers like the taste and it gives the restaurant a chance to support another Central Texas business.<\/p>\n \u201cWe like to keep things local whenever we can,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nCentral Market<\/a>,\u00a0Whole Foods Market Inc.<\/a>\u2019s (Nasdaq: WMSI) stores and local\u00a0Walgreen Co.<\/a> (NYSE<\/a>: WAG) stores, among others.<\/p>\nAdvanced Micro Devices Inc.<\/a> (NYSE: AMD),\u00a0Samsung Electronics Co.<\/a> Ltd.,\u00a0Motorola Inc.<\/a> (NYSE: MOT) and Austin-based\u00a0Freescale Semiconductor Inc<\/a>. In 2006, he founded Natural Renewable Energy with a plan to install solar energy farms. But the prices of solar panels weren\u2019t low enough to make the installation of farms cost-effective.<\/p>\nRaining money<\/h5>\n