A View from the Top: Les Montgomery, chief executive of bottled water giant Highland Spring

The UK’s plain bottled water market has an overall estimated value of £2.4bn. But that figure is soaring and Highland Spring is leading the pack

Few know more about the industry than Montgomery (Highland Spring)

It's one of the hottest days of the year in central London and Les Montgomery is in his element.

Not literally – though considering the sweltering air I'm sure the jovial Scots wouldn't mind if he was. But he's spent the day talking in great detail about water, and if you’re looking for someone who can do so with any authority, Montgomery's your man.

In fact, when it comes to the bottled variety, I’d be willing to bet that there are fewer than a dozen people in the UK who are more knowledgeable – or at least passionate – about the wet stuff than him. As CEO of the UK’s biggest bottled water company, and an employee of Highland Spring for more than three decades, he knows practically all there is to know about sourcing, bottling, marketing and selling.

“I’ve probably been at the company longer than you’ve been alive,” he chuckles, before taking a sip of coffee and washing it down with – you guessed it – water.

Refreshingly, as his ruddy complexion suggests, his passion for water extends beyond his professional life. “What’s your favourite water?” I assume a totally appropriate icebreaker for a man of his profession, before I realise just how clichéd I’m being.

“I really like sparkling water – still when I’m at the gym,” he politely answers, pretending that’s not the first question unimaginative journalists ask. “Obviously I like Highland Spring,” – an almost imperceptible tilt of the head toward his PR – “but I also like anything with a neutral taste, anything that doesn’t taste too strong.”

Strong mineral water? I told you, he knows his stuff.

In today’s qualification-obsessed world, Montgomery serves as a stellar reminder that chief executives don’t have to have a collection of letters after their names to be a leader in their field. He proves that no academic credential in the world can substitute passion, discipline, drive and a proven ability to recruit, manage and retain the best staff.

The 53-year old was born in Falkirk, in the central lowlands of Scotland. He left school at the age of 16 and got a job as a trainee accountant in a small private firm in 1979, which was the same year Highland Spring was established. Six year later, and after completing his accounting qualification, he joined the company.

So had he always nurtured a passion for bottled water? “I think before joining I’d only ever had bottled water on holiday in Spain,” he says.

I’m not surprised. Bottled water for decades was – and by the laws of reason still should be – a premium product. Why pay hard-earned cash for something that comes out of every tap? But the explosion of the market for convenience food and, more recently, a trend towards clean, nutrient-packed eating, has blown up the sector beyond recognition.

In 2015, US retail giant Wholefoods reportedly stocked water infused with asparagus spears at almost $6 (£4.60) a bottle at one of its stores. The chain later withdrew the product, saying that it had been offered in error, but there are other examples that seem just as outrageous. A 750ml bottle of Svalbardi iceberg water, available online, will set you back almost €70 (£62).

But let’s get back to Scotland.

When Montgomery joined Highland Spring, which these days is owned by billionaire UAE businessman Mahdi Al Tajir, it was a relatively slight business with an annual turnover of £3.2m. There were four people working in the office and on his first day the company got its first computer. “It was huge,” the CEO remembers. “Perhaps the size of a car – or even bigger”.

Fast-forward 32 years and he’s is in charge of a more than £100m revenue operation with a laser-sharp focus on automation. It bottles more than 500 million litres of water a year and has the fastest bottled water production line in the world. As he’s telling me all this, Montgomery gets his iPhone out and shows me a video, much like a proud father would share snapshots of a cooing baby. Then, for good measure, he shows me a video of one of the springs up near Sterling spewing water several feet into the air. “How great is that?” he asks with a grin on his face.

If you live in the UK, chances are that you’ve guzzled some of the water he helps bring to the market in the not too distant past – if not the flagship brand, then perhaps Speyside Glenlivet or Hydr8. The group also supplies scores of private label waters, both flavoured and unflavoured, to many of the country’s biggest supermarkets and food service retailers. So even if you’re not aware of it, you’ve probably got a pretty good idea what Highland Spring tastes like.

It’s a huge venture in a dramatically expanding field. The UK’s plain bottled water market, which doesn’t include flavoured varieties, has an overall estimated value of £2.4bn, but a ferocious appetite for healthy living means that this figure is soaring. Between 2016 and 2021, consultancy Zenith Global expects it to swell by a staggering 59 per cent.

As a player in this field – even as a dominant, well-established one with solid foothold and great brand recognition – that rate of expansion could look daunting. The challenge to keep up is immense. But sitting under a white canopy in the swanky hospitality area of the Queen's tennis club in west London – an event that Highland Spring has sponsored for many years – Montgomery looks relaxed.

“There’ve been a lot of challenges along the way but I’ve also got a lot planned,” he says.

He took over as CEO in 2008, and although he admits that he was being groomed for the top spot, it happened much faster than expected as his predecessor was forced to step down for health reasons.

To heap even more pressure on Montgomery, his appointment came just weeks before the collapse of Lehman Brothers which set in motion a global financial downturn, sending shockwaves through the economy and business – all the way from Wall Street to Stirlingshire.

Montgomery said that Highland Spring, like its peers, felt the squeeze. It cut bonuses. “It was tough coming in as a new CEO and having to do that, but we got through it and we’re in a great position now”.

So might the next obvious challenge be Brexit? I ask, cautiously.

Although Highland Spring does most of its business within the UK, it hasn’t escaped the headwinds.

The slump in the value of the pound against the dollar ratcheted up the cost of some machinery that the company was ordering from Germany. More stirringly perhaps, Montgomery tells me of a small number of workers from elsewhere in the EU who had left Scotland and returned home in the aftermath of the vote. “It felt to me like the UK was saying we don’t want you [to EU workers],” he said. “Which is obviously not true.”

As we hurtle towards the split though, he seems tentatively optimistic, concentrating on something that, unlikely politics, is not largely beyond his control.

He has a “2020 vision” that will see the group grow by more than 50 per cent from where it was in 2015. It’s an ambitious goal but consumers are thirsty and his more than three decades at the company don’t seem to have burdened his enthusiasm. Though tight-lipped on the matter, he seems to be brimming with ideas around production and sales strategies, and knowing what he’s achieved so far it will be exciting to see where he takes the humble firm from Scotland next. Something tells me it won’t involve asparagus.