Recession liquidity

In the two years since Dan and Kelly Matteson bought Red Rock Spring Water two years that have seen the worst recession in 70 years they've doubled sales at the Sparks-based company.

There's no secret to the company's growth.

The Mattesons knock on doors. They hire the best salespeople they can find to knock on even more doors. And as former magazine publishers, they know the value of advertising to open doors for their sales effort.

"The issue continues to be sales, sales, sales," says Dan Matteson.

The ground that Red Rock Spring Water has gained through its unrelenting sales push has been hard-won in a tough competitive environment.

The company transports water from its spring north of Reno its 20 acre-feet of water rights are the company's most important asset and bottles it at a 5,000-square-foot bottling plant in Sparks.

When the Mattesons purchased the company, a big piece of its business came from customized labeling of bottles that were handed by businesses to support their marketing campaigns. But custom-labeled water bottles often were a casualty of corporate budget-cutting during the downturn.

"Everyone is watching every dime,"says Matteson.

Red Rock Spring Water also faces competition from big-box retailers, where consumers refill three- and five-gallon bottles on their own rather than pay for delivery service.

But the company's five hundred accounts include a growing number of businesses, including some of the biggest offices in the Truckee Meadows.

It's added coffee service, which many businesses want to purchase from the same vendor that they use for bottled water. And it's added BPA-free bottles to address the concerns of a growing number of customers who have seen news stories about the possibility that unhealthy chemicals leach into beverages from traditional plastic bottles.

As the company's owners and its commission-only sales force make calls, they emphasize Red Rock Spring Water's local roots and local ownership.

"When someone calls, it's either me or Kelly who is answering the phone," says Matteson.

He continues to deliver one of the company's eight routes, largely as a way to stay close to its customers, and also handles the company's accounting and leads the sales effort.

Matteson, a former English teacher who developed "Residence Magazine" in Reno and sold it near the top of the residential real estate market, continues to invest in advertising to open doors for his sales staff.

Red Rock Spring Water just wrapped up a radio campaign, and it's boosted its Internet presence.

Matteson acknowledges that the advertising campaigns often involve some experimentation.

"You've just got to throw the spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks," he says.