Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2014 | Page 48

2014 MVP AWARDS
BY DEBBIE SELINSKY

Doing Well by Doing Good
Meeting community needs in Greater Houston

C

hris Moore, a multi-unit Watermill Express
franchisee, is in the enviable position of knowing exactly who his customers are, what they
want, and why—and where—they want it.
This has allowed him not only to become a successful
franchisee with 92 water purification vending kiosks
across the Houston area, but also to contribute to the
community in an unusual way.
“Our freestanding structures, often in the middle
of a parking lot at a shopping center, allow people to
get purified water gallons at a time and 24 hours a day.
This works especially well in Sun Belt states, like Texas,
Florida, and California,” he says.
“Our primary customer is a person from another
country who didn’t trust the water system where they
grew up and so always had to drink purified water.
When that person comes to the U.S. and tastes the tap
water, they think they’ve been poisoned. They can’t
stand chlorinated water because their palate has been
developed drinking clean, pure water. That’s what they
drink and cook with and make coffee with, and that’s
what they’ll seek out here.”
His customers, often lower- to middle-class, he says,
“don’t want to buy a bottle of Aquafina for 99 cents or
pay a dollar for a gallon of water when we’re out there
selling water for 35 cents a gallon.” Since customers
often reuse their own containers, there’s also a green
aspect to the business, he adds.
Moore, who started with Watermill in 1992, has
NAME: Chris Moore
TITLE: CEO, Cap-Mor Ltd., Houston
NO. O