FAMOUS RAMONA WATER
250 Aqua Lane
P.O. Box 1195
Ramona, CA 92065
(760) 789-0174
famousramonawater.com
frw.jbruni@gmail.com
Joe Bruni
Owner
Famous Ramona Water, Inc. began as a plastic manufacturing company named Lormac Plastics in Escondido, California. In 1970, the company began to bottle water from a private well in Ramona, California in order to have an outlet for their one gallon plastic bottles. The name Famous Ramona Water had been used by the source years earlier in a small scale local bottling operation and was adopted by the new operation.
The bottled water portion of the business rapidly grew and was split off as Ramona Bottling, Inc. In 1987 the small package portion of the business was split off from the 5 gallon business as Famous Ramona Water, Inc.
The company is a privately held corporation. Gerry Kolsky and Jay Filer founded the original bottle water business. Gerry Kolsky retired in 1985 and Jay Filer is still active in the business.
Famous Ramona Water bottles in 8 oz . to 2 1/2 gallon containers and has two house brands, “Famous Ramona” and “Sequoia Springs”. They also do extensive contract bottling.
Land & Buildings (Owned)
Our present plant is located on a 1.05 acre parcel. It consists of a 9100 sq. ft. bottling plant and an adjoining 7500 sq. ft. warehouse building and another 26,000 sq. ft. building on an adjacent 1.77 acre parcel. It is connected to our present building by an enclosed ramp. Our total plot of land is 4.82 contiguous acres, leaving 2.0 acres for additional expansion.
Spring
Our natural spring water is about 100 ppm of total dissolved solids and comes from a private spring in the mountains East of Ramona. The spring is above the 5,000 ft. level and is about 40 miles from our plant. We have an automatic annual renewable agreement with the owner of the spring, which we have held for over 35 years. It is a very good spring water source, and one of the finest in Southern California.
Bottling Line
We have (4) DIFFERENT BOTTLING LINES: 1 Gallon, 2 ½ Gallon, Liter (8 oz-1.5 liter), and 2 Liter.
1 Gallon Line
This line is set up in line with a Uniloy 4-head extrusion blow-molding machine. It is set up to run at the blow molding speed of about 30 bottles per minute. At this speed, packing is done by hand into either dairy cases or a bliss style carton made and sealed by an SWF box machine. We can run either a 4-1 gallon or 6-1 gallon Bliss box. We can also run a 3-1 gallon RSC box using a tape case sealer. The one-gallon filler with capper is a Federal 12 valve machine. This is our oldest bottling line, with some of the equipment over 20 years old. We are in the process of starting to replace some of the equipment on this line. We produce a dairy style 1 gallon bottle with a foam-lined screw cap. We can also run a foil-lined screw cap. Labels can be applied to front and back panels using a Labelaire Machine. We aldo run ½ gallon bottles, which we purchase and feed onto the line.
2 ½ Gallon Line
Our 2 ½ gallon package utilizes the Liqui-Box container and valve. The filler/capper is an almost new Liqui-Box 3-head machine that we run at 15 bottles per minute. The 2 ½ gallon line shares the packing station with the one-gallon line, but we run both lines at the same time while one is being run in boxes and the other in dairy cases.
Liter Line
On the liter line we run 8 oz., 12 oz., 0.5 liter, 1.0 liter, and 1.5 liter, 1 gallon and ½ gallon sizes. We can run either a flat cap or a sports cap, and can install a plastic protective sleeve. We can run either plain paper or pressure sensitive labels. We ae now running 12-pack trays, 6-pack shrink wrapped, or loose packed in boxes. Bottling speed are up to 100 bottles per minute. This line is very versatile and ideal for short runs and quick changeovers. It consists of a McBrady orbit rinser, an 18-valv Fogg filler with a 5-hear capper, a Krones Rotina labeler, a Labelaire pressure sensitive labeler, a Marburg sleeve applicator, a Polypack shrink packager, and a S.V. Dice case sealer. Bottles are loaded and packed by hand. Cartons are erected by hand. We use a Lantech pallet wrapper.
2 Liter Line
This line is set up to run the 2-liter decanter bottle. We also have change parts to run 0.5 liter, l.0 liter, and 1.5 liter, l gallon, and ½ gallon sizes. The line utilizes a Bevco rinser, 18-valve Fogg filler and capper, Quadrel pressure sensitive labeler, Krones Rotina labeler, Maxco tray former, McDowell case erector, Hamrich case packer, Rockford case sealer, Arpac tray wrapper, and Lantech pallet werapper. The line will run up to 100 b.p.m.
Other Equipment
35-45 GPM double pass reverse osmosis unit which produces reverse osmosis USP quality Purified Water.
Stainless Steel water storage tanks which will hold 52,000 gallons of product water.
Three silos which will hold a rail car load of plastic resin.
Vehicles (see list)
Ozone generators
Other misc. equipment
Water Types
Spring
Distilled
Purified
Alkaline
Mineralized