SPRING water has been discovered on the Forest site of the Lucozade Ribena Suntory factory.

The possibility of selling pure bottled water to the rest of the world came to light when two boreholes were sunk at the Coleford plant.

Having drastically reduced the sugar mountain it uses in its drinks, the company says “we’re committed to monitoring and reducing our impact on the environment” and wants to source its own water to help make its products.

But whether LRS will force the likes of Buxtons to lose its bottle by entering the spring water market remains to be seen, with the company happy at the moment to try and reduce water wastage.

Site boss Mick Pedder said: “We’ve installed two boreholes at the Coleford site that has reduced the water taken from the town’s supply by 25 per cent.

“Our water efficiency programme is all about reducing water wastage and minimising our impact on local resources.

“At LRS, we respect our natural resources and are committed to improving the sustainability of our brands through the value chain, by operating efficiently with minimum waste.”

LRS started drilling last summer and is now seeking approval from the Environment Agency to start using the water.

The company’s goal is to soon self-source around two-thirds of the water it needs to make Ribena and Lucozade, while it also aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by a fifth by 2020.

It also wants to save more than one million transportation miles a year, while waste heat from its combined heat and power plant is captured and re-used to create steam for its production process, providing more than three-quarters of its power on-site.

Mr Pedder added: “We’ve reduced the plastic used in our supply chain by 2,606 tonnes in the last 12 months and we’re still reducing.

“We’ve also been ‘zero waste to landfill’ since 2008. We’re committed to the three Rs: Reduce, Re-use Recycle.”

LRS, which employs 350 people in Coleford, is also leading the way in healthier drinks, cutting the calorie content by more than half in Lucozade, Ribena and Orangina two years ago.

The sugar-light, and even sugar-free, revolution has seen around 25,500 tons of sugar – equal to 580 lorry loads – and 98 billion calories eliminated from annual Lucozade and Ribena production, by reducing sugar content from between 10g and 11g per 100ml to 4.5g.