Portuguese brewing major Super Bock is to invest €10m ($10.5m) in its local Vitalis mineral water business.

The money, to be invested between now and 2030, is to be used to “increase the operational efficiency and environmental sustainability” of Vitalis’s water capture and filling centre in Castelo de Vide.

Super Bock Group, the largest beverage company in Portugal, has already invested €2m in this site for water that originates in the Serra de São Mamede natural park. That investment has been used to modernise industrial equipment, improve facilities and create a new industrial water treatment station.

Super Bock said that, since 2010 as a result of its investment in the site, water consumption has been reduced by 66%, electricity consumption by 27% and greenhouse gas emissions by 55%.

On its new financial commitment, CEO Rui Lopes Ferreira said: “The investment plan we have in progress reflects the importance of the still water business for the Super Bock Group and is integrated with our sustainability strategy, in which reducing the water impact of our activity is one of the main commitments.

“It is essential that we can preserve such an important resource, such as water, and contribute to the economic and social development of the communities in which we operate.”

Over the next five years, Porto-based Super Bock plans to focus on modernisation projects at Vitalis’s facility to increase the efficiency of filling lines with a special focus on returnable glass packaging, which it said reflects its commitment to the circularity of its packaging towards decarbonisation.

Super Bock said that in Castelo de Vide, 99.7% of the glass packaging that leaves the unit is already returnable.

The water operation at Castelo de Vide, which dates back 100 years, was acquired by Super Bock in 1971.

Aside from Vitalis, Super Bock also manufactures the Pedras, Melgaco and Vidago water brands.

Another area in which the company has been investing is low- and no-alcohol beer.

In May, Lopes Ferreira said he believed this will be an increasingly important segment in the next ten to 20 years.

Speaking at the at the International Beer Strategies Conference, he said:
“I think the demand will rise. It will not be a surge curve but it will consistently develop, I have no doubts.

“I believe it will grow, and at Super Bock we are well positioned to profit of that market development because we have been investing [in the area].”

Super Bock is 56% owned by Portugal’s VIACER Group and 44% by the Carlsberg Group.