“How much does a water purification company make?” is one of the most common questions asked by those who want to start a business in this industry. The honest answer is that it depends on your numbers: price, costs, volume, and how much control you have over your packaging. The good news is that you can calculate this fairly accurately before investing or when reviewing an existing business.
The Basic Formula
The benefits of a water refill business can be summarized as follows:
Monthly Profit = (price − cost per bottle) × bottles sold − fixed expenses − lost bottles
Let’s look at each part using an example in Mexican pesos. The numbers are for illustrative purposes only: replace them with your own.
1. Profit per water jug
If you sell a water jug for $40 with home delivery and it costs you $5 to produce—including the water, treatment, cap, seal, and cleaning—each jug leaves you with $35 to cover fixed costs and generate a profit.
2. Monthly Volume
With 70 jugs per day over 26 days of delivery, you sell 1,820 jugs per month. At $40 each, that’s $72,800 in sales.
3. Fixed Expenses
Rent, electricity, salaries, fuel, equipment maintenance, and insurance. In the example, $54,000 per month, with two administrative staff members and two delivery drivers. These are expenses you pay even if sales are low, which is why they determine your break-even point.
4. The Hidden Cost: Water Bottles That Aren’t Returned
If 20 water jugs are lost each month and it costs $70 to replace each one, that comes to $1,400 a month and $16,800 a year. It’s an expense that almost no one keeps track of, and it eats into a significant portion of the profit.
The result
Based on these figures: 1,820 jugs × $35 = $63,700 in gross profit. After subtracting $54,000 in fixed expenses and $1,400 for lost containers, the profit comes to $8,300 per month. The break-even point is about 61 water jugs per day: below that, the business loses money.
Do your own calculation using the profitability calculator: change the values and see the result instantly.
How to Earn More with the Same Water Refill Business
- Sell more water jugs per route: A well-organized route delivers more in less time. See how to organize delivery routes.
- Recovering Containers: Tracking Each Loan Per Customer Reduces Losses. Read about how to keep track of loaned water jugs.
- Get Paid on Time: A sale that isn’t collected isn’t profit. Learn how to collect from delinquent customers.
- Check the price: if your profit margin per jug is very low, even a small adjustment can make a big difference in your monthly results.
Conclusion
A water filtration business can be very profitable, but the difference between profit and loss often lies in the details: the margin per jug, daily volume, and the number of containers lost. Tracking these metrics each month is the first step toward improving them.
Yaku’s water refill business software shows you sales, water jugs out on the street, and each delivery person’s collections in real time. Try it free for 7 days.
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