Trouble continues to mount for the metal reusable water bottle maker SIGG Inc. with outdoor gear company Patagonia announcing Tuesday an end to a co- branding partnership that brought together two iconic companies linking health- conscious consumerism with environmentalism.
“They told us there was no BPA in the liner of the bottle, notice the key word there,” Rick Ridgeway, Patagonia’s vice-president of environmental initiatives, said in an interview.
The announcement from the outdoor clothing and gear company, dubbed the coolest company on the planet by Fortune Magazine, comes a week after SIGG’s chief executive officer issued a public apology to customers.
Steven Wasik’s first letter, released days before the apology, set off an online firestorm among customers when he revealed that the epoxy liner in SIGG’s aluminum bottles contained trace amounts of bisphenol A until the company made the switch in August 2008 to its “BPA-free EcoCare liner.”
Older inventory remained on some store shelves in Canada until the revelation.
The question now is whether an apologetic SIGG, newly committed to transparency, can repair its brand.
SIGG was one of many vendors Patagonia vetted in 2005 after the company decided it would no longer sell any consumer products with bisphenol A because of health concerns.
“We took them at their word,” said Ridgeway of SIGG’s BPA-free claim and declaration that technical details were proprietary to a third-party producer of its liner formula.
SIGG, which set itself apart from the competition with stylish designs and environmental pitches like “Simply Eco Logical,” was one of the big winners in the anti-plastics push that took off a few years ago.
In addition to selling Patagonia-branded SIGG bottles and other SIGG bottles at its retail stores, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard recently did a photo shoot holding a SIGG bottle for an upcoming magazine advertisement to promote 1% for the Planet – an alliance of businesses that donate at least one per cent of their annual revenues to environmental organizations worldwide.
All these co-branding and co-marketing efforts with SIGG are now over, Patagonia says.
In an interview, SIGG’s top executive says he’s “disappointed” by Patagonia’s decision, but “respects” it.
Wasik, who served as SIGG’s general manager for the United States from September 2005 until ascending to the top corporate spot in February 2008, also countered that he wasn’t part of any negotiations with Patagonia back in 2005 and wasn’t aware that BPA was in the liner until June 2006.
“I was very interested to learn more and I pressed and pressed and that’s when they told me. And they explained to me the ingredients.”
That’s when SIGG started to develop a BPA-free liner with another supplier that wouldn’t require a confidentiality clause, said Wasik, adding this is part of SIGG’s new commitment to full transparency to repair any brand damage.
“We’re trying to be better, but I think it will take time. Green companies are held to a higher standard and I’m learning that.”