VENDEN HISTORY
Before foundation of VENDEN, in the early nineties, owner of the company stayed in America for several years and also observed that most companies use natural water from 18.9 litre bottles on a daily basis, as well as in offices there were water consumption equipment of various types and functions enabling to use water in hot, cold and carbonated form. The lessons learned have fostered the idea of creating a natural water production company.
After studying situation in Latvia, as well as according to the facts what are habits and trends in global water sector, the company VENDEN was purposefully created. It was clear initially that this business is not one of those that will make a quick and easy profit; however, awareness of that clean spring water could improve health and it would be available to every person living in Latvia gave a strong positive impetus to business start-ups.
One of the first tasks and at the same time one of the most difficult ones was finding a water abstraction site that could provide all population of Latvia with natural water in the future perspective. As Cesis was historically famous for water treatment, for example, in the middle of the eighteenth century Cesis physician Georg von Meier opened a water treatment institution in the city that treated not only locals but also patients from St. Petersburg, Pskov, Riga and other European cities, as well as during the Soviet period, one of the most popular health centres "Cirulisi" was operating in Cesis, water abstraction site and production possibilities were sought exactly in Cesis. After regaining of Latvia's independence, the health centre "Cirulisi" was closed, its premises and land were privatized. VENDEN representatives purchased the part of centre's building as well as the nearby natural mineral water boreholes. In the building a plant was made, water filling equipment was installed and filling of 18.9 litre water bottles with natural mineral water was commenced that was named VENDEN.
Water for drinking and satisfying thirst was rated by customers as very good, but tea or coffee made from it was not as tasty as from boiled water and made up sediment because its degree of mineralization was higher than that of filtered drinking water. In order to satisfy customers' needs a decision was made to find more suitable natural water abstraction site. Search process resulted in a map of springs located in Gauja National Park made in the eighties by Latvian geologists that included information on both types of springs (clear spring, sulphur spring, gypsum spring, iron spring, limestone spring), their geographic coordinates, and the most important indicators of chemical composition and capacity of the springs.
During the Soviet period, information on springs was gathered in case the World War III would be initiated - to provide population with drinking water, as deep underwater springs are natural reservoirs of natural water which has not accumulated pollutants from the surface that have stored up radiation. When studying and making analysis of data obtained, representatives of VENDEN noticed that one of the springs - Mezulu spring located in Vidzeme Uplands, Koceni District, was significantly different from the others with unique chemical composition: very low lime and iron content. Repeated chemical analysis of water confirmed the fact that it has a unique composition, the water is naturally soft as it flows through layers of quartz sand, so quartz serves as a natural filter and softens water. Spring and land adjacent to it were obtained in the property of VENDEN, while at the same time assuming great responsibility for the spring and nature surrounding it, because, according to data of the spring passport issued by the State Geological Survey, it was considered as a nature monument, as well as protective belt of strict regime is established around the spring, which prevented from making any changes to the spring area.