Auckland water bottler Pure Dew claims distributors Kyle and Selina Paniora have stolen Pure Dew customers and have been selling their own rival product in Pure Dew bottles. The two were ordered to provide Pure Dew with a list of all customers sold water in the three months prior to an April 2022 cancellation of their distribution rights and Pure Dew was given High Court authority to contact these customers direct.
Belinda and Tony Gillion’s bottled water business has operated for nearly three decades, using the trademark Pure Dew since 1996. Product is sold through supermarkets and direct to homes and businesses. Sales are also made through franchised distributorships.
The High Court was told Kyle Paniora and Selina Paniora, also known as Selina Rutherford, purchased two Pure Dew distributorships from the then franchise holders: a North Shore and central Auckland distributorship in 2016 for about $55,000; and a south Auckland distributorship in 2019 for $150,000. In early 2022, staff at Pure Dew’s East Tamaki processing plant noticed that some of the bottles returned for refilling by the Panioras had different coloured tops from those used by Pure Dew. This, coupled with the fact that the numbers of bottles they returned for washing and refilling had recently reduced by about fifty per cent, led Pure Dew to suspect the Panioras were running a parallel rival business using Pure Dew bottles. A flyer distributed by the Panioras to customers advertising future deliveries of their own product branded as OraWai Pure Still Water confirmed suspicions. Pure Dew sued, claiming damages.
In a preliminary High Court hearing, Justice van Bohemen ruled there was an arguable case that the Panioras had passed off their own product as Pure Dew. They were ordered to disclose their customer lists. Pure Dew was permitted to contact these customers, advising them product recently sold in Pure Dew branded bottles may not have matched Pure Dew’s exacting standards. Expert evidence identified that Pure Dew’s product is processed to a standard of less than one milligram of dissolved solids per litre; similar tests of the OraWai product identified up to nine milligams of dissolved solids per litre. Pure Water distils its product; OraWai uses filtration. Pure Dew believes between 200 and 300 of its customers were affected.
Pure Dew Water Company Ltd v. Pantranz Ltd – High Court (17.08.22)
22.146