Blue Rhino founder converts gas to [H.sub.2]O.

• Author: Richter, Chris
• Position: PEOPLE

Billy Prim is trying to do with water what he did with gas. In 1994, he launched propane distributor Blue Rhino and nurtured it into a $250 million business. Last year, he started Winston-Salem-based Primo Water Corp., based on the concept that fueled Blue Rhino's success--convenient locations where people swap empty containers for full ones.

This is a good time to dive into water. Consumption of the bottled kind has grown about 8% a year since 2002, and it has become a $10 billion a year industry, according to Beverage Marketing, a New York-based research company. Primo's niche is supplying the increasing number of home water coolers and dispensers.

In May, Mooresville-based Lowe's announced it will put Primo sales racks in all its continental U.S. hardware stores. "We want to make sure every time someone leaves with a water dispenser or water cooler, they also leave with a bottle of Primo, and we get them started in our program," Prim says.

Primo also is making inroads with grocery chains. Its racks are in Harris Teeter and some Kroger stores. Blue Rhino made its cylinder exchanges widely accessible, which changed the propane business. Prim's goal is to accomplish the same thing for bottled water.

Customers buy their first five-gallon bottle for $14.99, the suggested price. When they return it, they get a coupon for another at $6.99. Primo picks up the empties and refills them...