A new Big Island-based company — Pure Pacific International Inc. — is the latest business to tap into the growing demand for desalinated deep-sea water, while also marketing a spring water alternative.

The company was founded last year by Ernie Ganaden and Steve Sparks. The bottling facility, near Hilo, can produce up to 90 million bottles each year of the two bottled water varieties, aloha deep and aloha pure.

The water made its debut on O'ahu recently in specially labeled bottles distributed as "the official water" of the Hawai'i Convention Center. The distribution was expanded to the general public last week when Don Quijote stores began carrying aloha pure, the company's spring water product.

Aloha pure is pumped from an artesian well in Kea'au. The well taps into an aquifer that recharges at a rate of 740 million gallons a day fueled by the area's abundant rainfall and melting snow from Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, Ganaden said. "It's one of the purest waters you can find," he said.

The company now employs a dozen people but expects that to grow as production increases, he said.

The deep-sea water used to fill the aloha deep bottles is drawn from a deep-sea water source off the coast of O'ahu, desalinated, and shipped to the 14,000-square-foot processing plant on the Big Island. Ganaden said he expects aloha deep to be in stores beginning next week.

Aloha pure will be sold for around 99 cents for a 500 milliliter bottle, while a similar size bottle of aloha deep will retail for around $1.89 to $1.99, Ganaden said.

Before joining Pure Pacific, Ganaden was president of The Daily Wellness Co. which sold nutraceutical products and beverages worldwide. He was also a senior executive for domestic and international marketing and sales with Arlon, DEP Corp. and Marion Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals.

Sparks was president and chief executive officer of The Beverage Group, a startup company marketing premium bottled water, new age and functional beverage brands. Before that, he was a senior executive with several major bottled water and beverage companies.

Hawai'i exported more than 19 tons of desalinated drinking water to Japan and other countries in the first three months of this year as the market for deep-sea water from Hawai'i continued to grow.

Figures released in May by Foreign Trade Zone No. 9 showed about a 16 percent increase in exports of the water overseas during the first quarter, with more than 38,000 pounds shipped internationally.

Hawai'i's deep-sea water business sprang up about five years ago and has for the most part enjoyed rapid growth as consumers in Asia seek out the drink, marketed as a natural, pathogen-free product drawn from thousands of feet below the ocean's surface. The Foreign Trade Zone statistics show total export sales of the water rose to $41.7 million last year, while first-quarter revenue totaled $9.69 million.

Ganaden said his company has signed a distribution contract with ITO EN USA that is expected to deliver the new water to stores, including Safeway, Foodland, Food Pantry and ABC Stores.

Ken Niimura, of ITO EN, said the new waters fit well with his company, which is known for its natural ready-to-drink green tea beverages.

"We are very excited about this new product that will expand the offerings of ITO EN to popular drinking water products," Niimura said.

"We see the attractive benefits of supplying public demand for water that retains a dense mineral content," he said, along with added appeal as a product unique to Hawai'i.

Ganaden also is using a type of label that is more environmentally friendly, he said. Rather than the oil-based films water bottles usually use, he said the company is using corn-based polylactic acid — known as PLA — that is biodegradable and will dissolve in about two months.

"We want to be known as a company that's going to be eco-conscious," Ganaden said.

"This is our first effort toward our eventual goal of moving toward a corn-based material for the entire bottle," he said. Until then, he said ecologically savvy consumers can peel off the labels and throw them in with their compostable trash.

He said the labels come from the Gilbreth Packaging company in St. Louis, Mo. as part of its Earthfirst PLA films, derived from a resin that utilizes the starch stored in corn and converts it into natural plant sugars.

The sugar is then fermented into lactic acid that is used to create a plastic resin pellet called polylactic acid.

The company will use a marketing campaign that includes two bottled-water mascots: Miss aloha pure and Mr. aloha deep.