Primo Executive Brings Her Crusade Home

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C., Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- When Primo Water Marketing VP Kelly Lockwood-Primus started making plans for her next trip to New England, it was about more than just a journey back to her old stomping grounds.  This time, it was about offering a pat on the back to some former neighbors who decided to take a stand.  

Lockwood-Primus may have grown up a New Yorker, but she spent the last 15 years near Concord, MA; home to a growing public environmental sentiment that strikes home with her.  Concord voters this spring voted to ban the sale of single-use water bottles to ease the burden on overflowing landfills, and her company has taken a bold stance against single-use bottles for similar reasons.  

"It means so much to see my former neighbors standing up for something that is so important to us at Primo," she said.  "I really hope this is the beginning of a movement to be more sensitive to the environment."  

The Concord area also carries special meaning for her husband, Stu Primus.  A native of Lynn, MA, he was a member of the Final 8 Championship Basketball team at Boston College in the early 1980s before he was drafted into the NBA by the Indiana Pacers.

"There's no question that the people here are special," he said. "It's a great feeling to see them support a cause like this."

Kelly and her husband aren't going to be in New England alone.  She's taking with her a Primo team to act as sponsors of Concord's 375^th birthday music festival and fireworks show on September 12^th, 2010.  The team's mission is to congratulate the people of Concord for showing some environmental backbone.  At the festival, the company will offer free purified water refills to anyone at the festival who brings a reusable water bottle. Visitors to the Primo tent will also have the chance to win one of 100 home water dispensers to be given away. In addition, Primo plans to give away 2,500 free reusable sport bottles and other items.  

Primo Water Corporation sells purified water and its Energy Star rated water dispensers at thousands of retail locations across the country.  Primo Water's three- and five-gallon bottles are exchanged when empty for a discount on a new bottle.  Bottles are then reused an average of 40 times before the plastic is ultimately recycled.  

The Concord ban is still legally up in the air, but Lockwood-Primus still sees the effort as a victory for doing the right thing.

"You know, there was a lot of discussion about whether the ban could be enforced or not, and the state Attorney General ruled that it had to be rewritten to be valid," she said. "But the point is that people took notice of a critical environmental issue and took a stand. That's what's important."

Learn more about the Primo sponsorship of the Concord, MA 375^th birthday celebration at:  http://www.primowater.com/concordmass.php

Primo Water Corporation is the responsible choice for consumers who want to drink great tasting water. A leading nationwide provider of water and Energy Star rated home water dispensers; Primo chooses not to sell water in single-use water bottles and instead promotes the reduction of plastic in landfills by offering zero waste three- and five-gallon bottles. Primo's patent pending recycle/exchange program encourages consumers to return the empty bottle. Primo then refreshes and re-uses the bottles an average of 40 times before recycling the plastic. The majority of Primo water is bottled at locations within 100 miles of its point of sale minimizing its transportation carbon footprint. In nationwide blind taste tests, 3 out of 4 consumers preferred Primo over the nation's top selling spring waters. Learn more about Primo Water at www.primowater.com

SOURCE Primo Water Corporation