Key Takeaways
- EauYes secured a national listing with Brakes, a Sysco-owned wholesaler with over 100,000 selling points across the UK.
- The brand is already present in Google’s London offices, Heathrow Airport, and over 500 independent shops and cafes.
- Reorder rate is the company’s defining metric for the next twelve months.
Overview
EauYes is a Lebanese-founded flavored sparkling mineral water brand launched in 2025 and based in London. The product is sold in cans and built on a single premise: British water processing removes the minerals and electrolytes that make water worth drinking, and EauYes exists to correct that.
The brand was founded by Mazen Baaklini, a third-generation water bottler who serves as CEO.
Background
Baaklini grew up in a family business built around protecting a natural water source and bottling with minimal intervention. The water flows through ancient mountain rock and arrives clean enough to require no processing. That standard became his benchmark.
In the UK, he found the opposite. The British bottled water market is worth over £3 billion annually and growing, yet much of what lines supermarket shelves is processed, demineralized, or artificially enhanced. EauYes was his response, built on the same principle his family has operated under for decades: start with clean water and leave it alone.
Mission and Approach
EauYes positions itself as a cleaner alternative to the flavored and sparkling drinks that dominate UK retail. The product contains unprocessed mineral water, natural flavors, and added carbonation. The company treats consumer education as inseparable from the product itself, using social media to build awareness around what modern water processing actually does and what drinking unprocessed water feels like.
In a market where shelf space is expensive and consumer loyalty is hard-won, brand recognition built on a clear and honest argument is the long play.
Product and Offering
The product is deliberately minimal: unprocessed mineral water, natural flavoring, carbonation. It is designed for retail and food service environments, where the vast majority of drinks are bought rather than ordered online.
EauYes also invests in in-store marketing, including point-of-sale materials, recognizing that a wholesale listing means nothing if the product does not move once it is on the shelf.
Business Model
EauYes reaches consumers through wholesale and retail channels. Its primary customers are supermarkets, caterers, coffee shop suppliers, and food service distributors. Baaklini manages both ends of the market simultaneously, securing wholesale placements while running consumer-facing marketing to make those placements commercially viable.
Market and Reach
The UK functional and flavored water market is one of the fastest-growing segments in food and beverage, projected to exceed $1.5 billion by 2027 as consumers shift away from sugary drinks toward cleaner alternatives. EauYes is entering at a moment when the category has tailwinds but also significant competition from established brands with deep retail relationships.
Its most significant commercial development is a national listing with Brakes, a wholesale distributor owned by Sysco, the largest food service company in the world. The listing gives EauYes access to over 100,000 selling points across the UK spanning restaurants, offices, healthcare, and hospitality. The brand has also secured placement in Google’s London offices, Heathrow Airport, and over 500 independent shops and cafes.
Funding and Support
EauYes is bootstrapped, funded through personal capital and contributions from friends and family. No institutional funding has been raised. Baaklini has noted that as a Lebanese founder setting up in the UK, basic steps like opening a business bank account and securing a work visa were more time-consuming and difficult than they would be for a local founder, adding friction to an already capital-intensive launch.
Traction and Growth
EauYes is in a growth phase. The two metrics that matter most to the company right now are volume and reorder rate. The latter is the cleaner signal: whether consumers are choosing to come back. Sampling has been a consistent strength, with positive responses to both the product and its packaging across every market the brand has entered.
The company has set a one-year horizon to determine whether reorder rates justify moving into a full scaling phase.
Misconception
EauYes is sometimes read as a trend-driven product. Baaklini pushes back on that. The company is built around a repeatable consumer habit, not a novelty purchase, and its distribution strategy reflects a longer-term ambition.
Outlook
The next 6 to 12 months are focused on activating the Brakes listing and converting access into volume. Growing reorder rates across existing accounts is the primary objective. New wholesale relationships will continue to develop in parallel, but the Brakes partnership is the clearest test of whether EauYes can operate at national scale.
