How seeing a burning plastic bottle on a yacht set Ocean Bottle's William Pearson on a course to tackle water-based pollution

For our interview series in association with Investec, we bring you the stories of business leaders who are driving British brands built on purpose and passion. As a company founded by entrepreneurs, Investec is shining a light on luxury marques within the Walpole family who share a mission to disrupt the status quo of their sectors, and what makes the mindset of the entrepreneurs behind these values-driven companies unique. 
 
Here, we speak to William Pearson, whose reusable bottle company Ocean Bottle, is on a mission to rid the world’s waterbodies of plastic waste.

When he was 21, William Pearson was working as a deckhand on a luxury yacht to earn money after studying for his engineering degree. A passionate seafarer since his childhood – his interest in the ocean was ignited by childhood excursions around the Norwegian Fjords with his grandfather – this three-week journey from the Maldives to Malta would set him on a course to establishing his purpose-led drinking bottle company.

“The owners of the yacht had brought 1,000 bottles of Evian for their family,” William says. As a deckhand, one of his responsibilities was to pour out the leftovers of these water bottles and crush them. This plastic was then taken away to an island and burned. “You’re in one of the most pristine places in the world, one of the most biodiverse habitats, and you've got plastic being burned and just drifting off into the ocean. That was quite eye-opening for me.”

After that experience, Pearson returned to London and started a Master’s degree. By chance, he met his Co-Founder Nick Doman on his first day at business school. Together they formed the genesis of Ocean Bottle which sells a range of premium priced, sustainably-made and reusable water bottles. In 2022, the brand graduated from the Walpole Brands of Tomorrow mentorship programme – our incubator for the next generation of British luxury companies.

Today, every bottle sold funds the collection of 11 kilograms of ocean plastic waste, equivalent to about 1,000 plastic bottles by weight, and the company donates 15% of its revenues to achieve that goal. It has supported collection projects in Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Ghana, Kenya, Brazil, and Egypt – and it’s in the process of doing the same in the Dominican Republic.

“We're enabling people to bring their plastic waste and exchange that for an income,” he says. People working for the company in waste collection can also get access to other kinds of support including education, health, through to financial help in setting up their first bank account or getting an ID card.

Today, the company is rapidly approaching a milestone of collecting one billion plastic bottles, by weight equivalent. The duo’s next goal is to collect seven billion bottles by weight by 2025, which is equivalent to the weight of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest accumulation of plastic in the ocean.

The pair have built a strong group of advisors to support them in their goal. One of their board members is Øyvind G Schanke, the former Chief Investment Officer at the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund, one of the world’s largest funds which manages $1.4 trillion worth of assets.

Pearson says early mentors sometimes weren’t so supportive, and it took some courage to stay the course. An early advisor looked at their commitment to donate 15% of revenue and told them to cut it by a factor of ten. “We ignored them and stuck with it anyway,” William says. “We were able to generate 15% of our revenues for impact in the first year, and 26% net profit margin.”

That’s not to say their business has always been plain sailing. Some of the company’s biggest challenges include a warehouse burning to the ground, a vital shipment of bottles ordered by popstar Ed Sheeran that went missing – “we had to drive the replacements to the concert venue ourselves” – and then, of course, Covid.

Fortunately, before Covid, the company had diversified its revenue stream by selling bottles to large organisations, in addition to direct-to-consumer sales. The company sells branded bottles to companies such as KPMG, Google, Deutsche Bank, and Red Bull Racing. They plan to add wholesale retail soon.

However, as exciting as selling bottles to popstars can be, Pearson finds the waste collection work that each bottle funds the most rewarding part of running his business.

“One of our most satisfying company milestones was building our first fully-owned waste collection site on the east coast of India, which employs several workers and supports thousands of people locally,” he says. “We've created what are now really dignified, well-regarded jobs in that community.”

He says the business is being powered by increased demand and pressure from consumers, who are demanding products that are sustainable. “We're really seeing that kind of consumer pressure upwards, and that is really driving forward the transition,” he says. But the longer-term solutions to climate change and plastic waste are only ever going to come from businesses like his.

“I think business has that responsibility. Business really needs to enable people to actually be sustainable,” he says. Furthermore, he hopes that other companies will jump on pledges like his 15% donation model

Pearson has set himself a huge goal of being the ‘Nike of the ocean’. “Nike is for athletes, but imagine a brand like Nike, which has $36 billion in revenue annually, and they gave away 15% of revenue for a cause that it cared about. That’s our business model.”

And after that? “I'd love to sail around the world,” says Pearson. “That's my dream. And, you know, maybe combine it with work, that'd be even better.”