Interview, Part 2: Southern Glazer’s Wayne Chaplin And A1rwater CEO Pete Carr
November 4, 2025In the second part of our interview, industry veteran Pete Carr, CEO of atmospheric water company A1rwater, and Wayne Chaplin, CEO of leading U.S. distributor Southern Glazer’s, discuss the rollout of A1rwater in Florida, the longer term outlook on national expansion, sustainability trends, and the development of the super-premium water category in the U.S.
SND: How can Southern Glazer’s accelerate A1rwater’s expansion in the U.S.
Chaplin: For us, it’s about getting the right distribution in the right places so we get exposure to the consumer. The idea is to focus on Florida, get our feet under us, understand the right route to market, where and which customers are really going to make a difference. And then once we’re ready to talk about national distribution, national accounts, both on- and off-premise, would be the next big opportunity.
SND: How is A1rwater’s U.S. production infrastructure coming along?
Carr: We’re building a water farm here in South Florida, where we will be able to produce 120,000-plus liters of water a day. We’ll also do rain capture on the building that we’re designing—that’s also atmospheric water—which will significantly increase our overall water volume over the course of a year.
SND: How are sustainability trends informing the business outlook for companies like A1rwater?
Carr: Sustainability is at our core. We don’t pull from any natural resources, no rivers, no streams, no local municipalities. We pull the humidity out from the sky, run it through HEPA filters, disinfect it, mineralize it, and turn it into pure drinking water at the highest level. We’ve been doing it at scale in Dubai, producing 60 million liters of water since January 2024. Whether it’s our in-home machines or industrial machines, each one has a digital scorecard already built in, so we know exactly how many liters or gallons we produced, how much power we used, how far our bottles or cans will travel. And we’re completely plastic-free.
SND: What does the future hold looking into next year?
Chaplin: We’re promoting the idea of water sommeliers in restaurants as interest in the category continues to grow. A1rwater is something unique and different, and I think this can really break through.
Carr: When I was at Bacardi, we did the Bacardi Center of Excellence program at Florida International University, and that was a huge success in teaching young people about bartending and making cocktails. We’d like to also launch programs for water sommeliers so more people can learn about and help continue to develop the category.
Tagged : A1rwater, Southern Glazer's
