After 15 years of selling its reusable cups, Melbourne-based KeepCup is now taking its keep and reuse philosophy beyond coffee cups, launching its first-ever standalone reusable water bottle.
Water bottles were a natural next step for KeepCup, which was founded in 2009 by siblings Abigail and Jamie Forsyth, and makes reusable cups, travel mugs and cold cups for customers on the go.
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The KeepCup Ora Bottle comes in four colours – orchid, mulberry, pashmak pink and black – and is available in 700ml and 900ml bottles. In 2022, KeepCup also introduced two-in-one reusable cups and bottles under its Helix range.
The vacuum-insulated bottles are made from 90% stainless steel to keep water cold for hours, with a 50% recycled Tritan lid that allows users to switch between sipping or chugging with one touch. The bottles are also lead-free and BPA and phthalate-free.
Speaking with SmartCompany, co-founder Abigail Forsyth says the official design process for the water bottle took two years, from the tooling process, going back and forth, making sure it works, through to quality control.
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“But we were thinking about it long before we made the move,” she says.
The main feedback KeepCup has been getting is that visual pleasure remains part of the drinking experience.
“People enjoy the drinking pleasure and from a brand point of view, we wanted something that’s the roots of KeepCup,” she says.
“You reach for a cup because of that beautiful drinking experience and the ritual it creates around it. We’re going for the same thing with water, so that you keep hydrated, you refill it, and you keep using it because you enjoy drinking from it, and you enjoy that experience.”
“Always going to be a market” for reusable drink bottles
Since launching in 2009, KeepCup has sold over 30 million reusable cups.
The company has 40 members of staff across the board, including eight people in its UK office, and it ships globally from distribution hubs in Australia, the UK and the US.
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All KeepCup products are hand assembled and manufactured in its local warehouses in Melbourne and London, with components coming from China and Portugal.
Forsyth says after being in business for 15 years, she has seen the rise and fall of a lot of trends in drink bottles, including those made by Bobble, S’well and Frank Green.
“There are waves of fashion around drink bottles. So I think we’re well-positioned with our timing around how that might go in the marketplace,” she says.
“I think there’s always going to be a market for them. People want to have hydration on the move. They want to move away from buying single-use water bottles. [But] Have we reached peak hydration? I don’t think so.”
Forsyth added there has been backlash around sustainability in recent years, and this is leading consumers and brands to go back to basics.
“I think people are returning now to those first principles of sustainability, and we’re starting to see that more,” she says.
“So the timing does feel good from that point of view, that brands are leading with their values and a sense of integrity and how and why they do things.”
