Customers stop at the Roaring Spring Water store on Friday in Roaring Spring. DS Services of America Inc. has acquired the water company. Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski

ROARING SPRING — Cott Corp., a leading provider of home and office bottled water delivery services in North America and Europe, announced Friday that DS Services of America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cott, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Roaring Spring Water.

The acquisition of Roaring Spring Water, a provider of water delivery services to homes and offices in Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia since 1981, will give DS Services two new branches in the area — Roaring Spring and Ridgeley, W.Va. — and about 7,500 customers.

In 2018, Roaring Spring Water, a fifth-generation company, sold its Gettysburg location and water store to Nestle Waters North America.

Roaring Spring Water CEO Dan Hoover said Friday that he was pleased with the sale to DS Services.

“DS Services has a strong commitment to service and will continue to use the spring water from Roaring Spring, so they were a natural fit when deciding to sell the business,” Hoover said. “Our customers will benefit from even more beverage options delivered where they live and work.”

But Hoover said it wasn’t an easy decision to sell the family business.

“It’s bittersweet to sell a family business, but Bob Allen and myself, who are co-chairmen of our company and second cousins, knew that this was the right opportunity to sell the business to a company we respect and know will have the resources to be a long-term provider to our customers, but also our employees who will now be going to work for DS Services,” Hoover said.

Hoover said customers of Roaring Spring Water will now enjoy Crystal Springs, the DS Services brand in the region and have the ability to select additional products for their orders, including coffee and tea, sparkling water beverages from Sparkling Ice and premium water products such as Mountain Valley Spring, where available.

“Roaring Spring Water shares our focus on offering high quality products and delivering superior customer service and expands our footprint in the region,” Dave Muscato, president of DS Services said in a statement. “We are excited to welcome the Roaring Spring Water customers and associates to the Crystal Springs family.”

Roaring Spring Water has 47 employees, and all but two in West Virginia will either be employed by DS Services or one of Roaring Spring’s other businesses — Spring Cove Container and Roaring Spring Paper Products, Hoover said.

Roaring Spring will continue to own the buildings and lease space to DS Services, which will bottle the Roaring Spring water in a plant they own in Pittsburgh, Hoover said.

Mirror Staff Writer Walt Frank is at 946-7467.