Blazing Tales: Proud Source.

A source of delicious tasting water—and hope.

Proud Source Water was founded in Mackay, Idaho, in the Northern Rockies. Once a thriving mining town, Mackay (population: 514) was facing a job shortage, with economic troubles so dire they were looking at having to shut down the local school. But the one thing Mackay did have was delicious mountain spring water.

Filtered by thousands of layers of ancient volcanic rock, the spring water is naturally alkaline and mineral rich, without any need for additives. Proud Source’s founders, who have local roots, realized that the town was actually sitting on its own solution. In 2016, they set out to build a best-in-class bottling facility at the base of the spring source, making an immediate impact on the local community. Next, they looked to their packaging as another way to do good.

A partner Proud Source can count on.

The partnership between Ernest and Proud Source was a natural fit right from the start. Both companies are committed to supporting and strengthening the local community here in beautiful (and booming) Boise. Plus, Ernest’s warehouse is located just a few miles away from Proud Source’s headquarters, perfectly positioning our team to respond in a pinch.

Good communication is critical to any successful partnership—and when the lines of communication are open, you never know what opportunities might arise. For example, when Proud Source’s Supply Chain and Logistics Manager, Paige Breidinger, got a call from the Mackey plant one day letting her know the stretch wrap machine was down, she immediately put in a call to her Ernest client relationship manager, Trevor Wise.

Within two minutes, Trevor called back to say he could get someone out to the plant. Despite the three-and-a-half-hour drive from Boise, our customer automation specialist Greg Herr, got to Mackey quickly, identified the problem—the machine needed a temperature change— and fixed it.

Partnering locally for far-reaching growth.

While Proud Source is expanding their footprint in both production and sales, they’re still dedicated to supporting the local community that started it all. The company was looking for ways to lower operational costs and increase overall efficiency in service of their mission.

To get their uniquely packaged product to stores around the country, Proud Source uses shrink wrap to bundle cases of water onto pallets before shipment. They were in the market for a new shrink wrap supplier and were also dealing with occasional issues with the stretch wrapper, which wasn’t running the film efficiently.

As innovators in their own right, Ernest is always looking to partner with companies that are charting exciting new paths—and loved the direction Proud Source was heading. Paige says when Trevor reached out, “It was perfect timing.”

The Proud Source team liked Trevor’s proactive approach. In addition to offering shrink wrap materials, Ernest’s automation guru Greg re-tuned the wrapping machine and performed multiple test-runs with various new films to find the most efficient option in advance of taking an order. This showed that Ernest was truly invested in Proud Source’s success.

Ernest began supplying stretch and shrink wrap for both of Proud Source’s bottling facilities. As a result of the new materials provided and the equipment tuning, Proud Source gets more use out of each roll of
shrink wrap, reducing overall usage—and environmental impact.

Trevor says, “Through the combined power of Ernest’s solution-based selling and our local/national presence, we were able to provide a new level of optimization for Proud Source that’s really changed their packaging game. And that’s what we’re all about.”

When Ernest began delivering supplies to the Mackey facility, it came to light that Proud Source was paying a freight company to deliver pallets of water to their warehouse in Boise—over 200 miles away. Knowing the company’s commitment to environmental stewardship, Trevor offered to back-fill Ernest’s own delivery trucks with Proud Source product and have the drivers bring it back to Boise after dropping off packaging materials. This saves them freight costs while helping to further reduce their carbon footprint.

The future is looking bright. And green.

Proud Source is just getting started on their mission to protect the environment, empower consumers, and uplift communities. In addition to continuing to replace more and more plastic bottles with sustainable aluminum, the company is also looking to bring renewable water to the world. They were recently acquired by Source Global, a major player in the water technology field that’s developed game-changing new drinkable water technology.

Source Global makes hydro panels, which are similar to solar panels but pull in air from the atmosphere around them and then separate the molecules to distill water—literally out of thin air. Minerals are then added in to make the water drinkable.

Solar capabilities allow the panels to operate completely off grid. So, they can be placed essentially anywhere in the world. Source has been able go into places where there’s no drinkable water, such as some remote Aboriginal communities in Australia, and put up a small grid of panels to give that community immediate, ongoing access to drinkable water.

Proud Source will be working to bring this renewable and sustainable water into the marketplace. “We’re essentially creating a brand-new water category,” Dan says, “and that’s very exciting.”

As Proud Source continues to extend their core values of sustainability and doing good to all facets of their operation, Ernest is proud to play a small part in bringing about positive change for consumers, communities, and the world. And whatever the future holds for Proud Source, the Ernest team will be right here—ready to help solve it, together.