In an industry where luxury and sustainability are often seen as competing priorities, BE WTR’s founder and CEO Mike Hecker is challenging the status quo. Drawing on his experience building global consumer brands, Mike is on a mission to transform how water is produced, served, and experienced in hospitality – shifting from long-distance, single-use models to local, circular systems that deliver both premium quality and environmental responsibility.
You helped build innovative consumer brands before founding BE WTR. What inspired you to rethink bottled water for the hospitality industry, and why do you believe the traditional model is ready for disruption?
Throughout my career, I’ve been extremely fortunate to help build businesses that challenged established ways of thinking. I’ve taken many incredible lessons from these previous roles, but one thing that has always stood out is that the biggest opportunities often exist in categories that people rarely question. Water is absolutely one of those. It is one of the world’s most essential resources, yet the industry has continued to rely on a model where water is transported hundreds or even thousands of kilometres, packaged in single-use containers, and marketed as a premium experience. To me, that simply no longer makes sense in a world that expects both quality and responsibility, especially when it comes to sustainability.
That’s exactly why I founded BE WTR. Our ambition is to completely rethink how water is produced and served in hospitality by producing premium still and sparkling water locally, using advanced Swiss filtration and a circular bottling system. Rather than asking businesses to choose between luxury and sustainability, BE WTR demonstrates that the two can and should go hand in hand. By bottling water close to where it is consumed and serving it in elegant reusable glass bottles designed for more than 300 uses, we’re helping hospitality businesses reduce transport emissions and waste while delivering an exceptional taste and guest experience.
The opening of our new London BiG bottling facility this autumn is an important milestone in bringing that vision to life. London is one of the world’s leading hospitality destinations, and by producing water locally from our Surrey Quays facility, we’ll be able to support more hotels, restaurants, and premium venues with a solution that combines exceptional taste, operational excellence, and a significantly lower environmental footprint. Every new bottling plant we open is another step towards transforming how premium water is experienced, proving that local production is the future of hospitality.
Hotels and restaurants are under increasing pressure to balance exceptional guest experiences with meaningful sustainability goals. How can premium, locally sourced water help hospitality businesses achieve both?
The perception that sustainability requires compromise is, thankfully, rapidly disappearing. Guests still expect exceptional quality, a premium dining experience, and impeccable service, but many also now want to know that the businesses they choose are making responsible decisions. Water presents a unique opportunity because it touches almost every guest experience across the board, making it one of the most visible ways hospitality brands can demonstrate their sustainability efforts without sacrificing quality.
At BE WTR, we’ve designed a premium water brand that enables hotels and restaurants to serve locally bottled water without compromising on the guest experience. Freshly filtered water presented in elegant reusable glass bottles creates a refined dining experience while eliminating the need to transport bottles over long distances or rely on single-use packaging. It almost feels obvious, because it’s a solution that delivers operational, environmental, and brand value simultaneously, allowing hospitality businesses to serve water that champions both their standards and their values.
Our new London BiG bottling facility is a great example of that philosophy in action. By producing water within the city we’ll be able to support more hospitality partners across London with a local, circular solution that combines exceptional taste, premium presentation, and a significantly lower environmental footprint.
Single-use packaging remains a significant challenge across the hospitality sector. What practical steps can hotels, restaurants, and bars take to reduce waste without compromising quality, convenience, or brand perception?
The first step is recognising that sustainability shouldn’t exist as a separate initiative; it should be embedded into everyday operations. Hospitality businesses should look closely at products that are consumed in high volumes, water being a prime example, where relatively small operational changes can have a significant cumulative impact. It needs to be a conscious effort, but replacing disposable packaging with durable, reusable systems is one of the most effective ways to reduce waste while maintaining consistency and quality.
Equally important is choosing partners that make sustainability simple rather than adding complexity. Our circular model is already proving successful across a number of international markets and, with the opening of BE WTR’s London bottling facility in Surrey Quays this autumn, hospitality businesses across the capital will be able to benefit from locally produced water alongside our reusable bottle collection, professional washing, and refilling system. This allows hotels and restaurants to maintain the convenience they’re accustomed to while dramatically reducing waste. Guests increasingly associate responsible choices with premium brands, so moving away from single-use packaging is becoming an important part of protecting brand reputation and meeting evolving guest expectations.
Guests are becoming more conscious of where their food and beverages come from. How do you see expectations around water evolving, and what role will transparency, traceability, and local sourcing play in shaping future guest experiences?
Water is an essential part of life, but for many years, it was viewed as a commodity, with relatively little attention paid to where it came from or how it reached the table. That mindset is has already changed and continues to do so. Consumers are asking more questions about everything they consume, and water is no exception. They want reassurance around quality, safety, environmental impact, and increasingly, provenance. As awareness grows, I believe people will begin to expect the same level of transparency from water that they already expect from things like wine, coffee, or locally sourced ingredients.
At BE WTR, transparency is central to our approach. Because our water is produced locally, we can tell a much richer story about where it comes from, how it’s filtered using our advanced Swiss active carbon technology, how our reusable glass bottles are collected, cleaned, and refilled through a circular system, and why this dramatically reduces environmental impact. For hospitality businesses, that transforms water from an afterthought into part of the overall guest experience, creating a more meaningful story while reinforcing their sustainability credentials. I believe transparency, traceability, and local sourcing are on course to become defining factors in how guests judge premium hospitality experiences.
Having worked with globally recognised brands such as Nespresso, what lessons have you brought to BE WTR about creating premium experiences while driving meaningful change in consumer behaviour?
One of the most valuable lessons I learned at Nespresso is that people rarely change their behaviour simply because something is more sustainable. They change because the overall experience is better. If you can combine superior quality, thoughtful design, convenience, and emotional engagement, then sustainable choices become the natural choice rather than the difficult one. That’s a philosophy I’ve carried with me throughout my career.
At BE WTR, we’ve applied a similar thinking to water. We haven’t focused solely on solving an environmental challenge, instead we’ve reimagined the entire experience, from the taste and presentation to the elegance of the bottle and the simplicity of the circular system behind it. When sustainability enhances the guest experience instead of detracting from it, people don’t feel they’re making a sacrifice. We make it easy for the guest, so they’re simply choosing a better product, and that’s how lasting behavioural change happens.
Looking ahead five to ten years, what do you think the hospitality industry’s relationship with bottled water will look like? What innovations or shifts do you expect to have the greatest impact on hotels, restaurants, and bars?
I believe we’ll see a significant shift away from transporting water across continents towards producing premium water much closer to where it is consumed. Hospitality has always evolved alongside guest expectations, and I think locally produced, circular water systems will become the new benchmark for premium hotels and restaurants. Just as local sourcing has transformed food, I believe it will increasingly shape how water is experienced, served, and valued.
Alongside localisation, technology will continue to improve both quality and transparency. Advanced filtration systems, smarter circular logistics, and better traceability will allow businesses to provide guests with greater confidence in what they’re consuming while reducing environmental impact. That’s exactly the future BE WTR is building. Our new London bottling facility, with its opening just around the corner, is another step towards creating a network of local production sites that allows the world’s leading hotels and restaurants to serve water that is local, circular, and aligned with the expectations of modern guests.
London is just the next chapter, but every new BE WTR bottling facility brings us one step closer to reshaping the future of premium hydration for hospitality, proving that sustainability and luxury can evolve together, without compromise.
