The Business Newspaper of Metropolitan New Orleans

November 9, 2007 07:28 MST

Target, Winn-Dixie order more Aqua2Go™

NEW ORLEANS - Aqua2Go has been stocked in 400 Target stores around the country as part of a test run, said owner Stacey Griffin of New Orleans.

"It's fun stuff," said Griffin. "I am waiting to hear back from Walmart now. Fingers crossed."

Aqua2Go orders from Winn-Dixie stores have jumped from an initial 100 to all 500 stores. All new Rouses Supermarkets (formerly Sav-A-Center) have added the drink in a box, too.

Packaging water in a juice box was an idea people had conceived before. But before Griffin's Esgee Enterprises invented Aqua2Go, no one had made it available for purchase at grocery stores.

Aqua2Go sales finance children's charity organizations and help the New Orleans recovery.

"I've owned a children's psychiatric facility for seven years so I'm a social worker," Griffin said. "It's been my day job for 12 years and my primary passion."

Since Aqua2Go hit the market in December 2006, sales have benefited 20 charity organizations such as the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the Oprah Winfrey Boys and Girls Club and KaBoom, a group dedicated to rebuilding playgrounds dismantled by Katrina.

Griffin has also donated Aqua2Go shipments for fundraising events.

Aqua2Go gained a national plug from New Orleans native and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres after Griffin wrote to the show about her invention. DeGeneres responded by parodying Justin Timberlake's "In a box" skit from Saturday Night Live to millions of daytime viewers. Thousands more found out about the product via the segment's placement on YouTube.

"I thought she'd wrote it originally and couldn't get over how nice it was," Griffin said. "But then I found it was an SNL parody, and then it was just hilarious."

Aqua2Go's aseptic packaging and reverse osmosis process promises a five-year shelf life and requires no special storage conditions.