MAINE PUBLIC • February 18, 2021
A pair of private investment firms will soon buy Poland Spring and several other North American bottled water companies in a $4.3 billion deal with Swiss food giant Nestlé, the companies announced this week. The transfer is expected to happen this spring. For now, the two companies that have agreed to buy Nestlé’s bottled water holdings, One Rock Capital Partners and Metropoulos & Co., have provided little information about what changes could be in store for brands such as Poland Spring, Pure Life, Deer Park and Arrowhead. Maine water rights activists opposed the sale of Poland Spring before it was formally confirmed this week, arguing that individual communities will lose even more control over their groundwater supplies if it passes from Nestlé to private equity firms.