Fulfilling Promises

Arriving in Cairns for a holiday, owner of Cairns Natural Spring Water, Richard Sercombe has now called Cairns home for almost three decades; and has watched with pride as his business flourishes due to his forward thinking and vision. 

Established in Woree in the beautiful foothills of Cairns, their natural spring water is 100 per cent pure and unadulterated; nothing is added or taken away. It is as clean and fresh in the bottle as in the underground aquifer from which it is sourced. The water is bottled directly on-site daily. 

Richard is a natural people person and enjoys daily interactions with his customers. In recent years Richard has invested $1.5 million into the Woree production facility, which has become one of Queensland’s most sustainable bottle-water manufacturers. 

Their hybrid truck continues to reduce the company’s environmental footprint along with a specialised blow-moulding machine to enable his business to produce its own bottles on-site and avoid interstate road transport to Far North Queensland. 

“Our bottles are made out of pre-forms and look like little test tubes with a thread on top. This enables us to get one pallet sent on a truck from Brisbane, replacing 22 pallet spaces of entirely made water bottles. 

“To us, the blow-moulding machine was a great investment and a huge reduction in road travel emissions.” 

Richard is proud of how far they have come and continues to improve the business’s environmental footprint. Their work shed has 56 solar panels, and they keep a close eye on transiting their delivery truck to fully electric when possible.

Their electricity bills have come down, and it helps to keep things as green as possible. Richard promised in 2015 to be as green as they can be, and he believes they certainly have kept their promise. 

With the trend to be anti-plastic, Richard said it’s important for people to realise that if plastic is recycled, it’s the best and cleanest solution for water bottles. 

Some sage advice Richard offers business owners is to step back and weigh seemingly obvious environmentally friendly options before making business decisions. Sometimes all it takes is a little research, there are many green options out there for business, but you need to adapt ones that not only improve your business but are financially viable. 

“Aluminium cans may mean less ocean waste, but they come with their own surprisingly high eco-price. The production of each can pumps about twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as each plastic bottle.

“l pride myself on delivering what I tell people. I’m happy for people to come down and see our set-up. We’ve got a minimal footprint with streamlined systems all done with modern technology.”

“I’m an avid diver and snorkeler. I love fishing on the reef, where I can spend a lot of time on the water and outdoors. I believe you have to be responsible for the region you live in.”

Making it through cyclone Larry and Yasi were enormously busy times for the business. Still, Richard noted that numerous family members and friends came to assist during that period with extremely extended working hours. 

Once they started putting the unpredictable Covid period behind them, Richard said they had grown phenomenally. 

“I’ve got a good team that works for me as well. Everybody does their job, and they do it with pride. We all look after each other, which makes all the difference in running a successful business.”

Story produced by connectfnq.