Fiji Water ran its own shipping network during the pandemic, a move that gave the bottled water brand direct control over a supply chain strained by global disruptions.
Amid the pandemic, the company’s parent, The Wonderful Co., activated a dedicated service between Fiji and the U.S. East Coast through Neptune Pacific, a logistics business it had acquired in 2007. The route connected the island nation to Philadelphia, Houston, and Savannah, using a purchased vessel.
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A Neptune Pacific spokesperson confirmed the service is no longer active, though it operated multiple voyages until global shipping capacity improved. The decision wasn’t about vertical integration for its own sake, said Kim Kristensen, Neptune Pacific’s president. It was about reducing risk at a moment when reliability mattered most.
“This wasn’t about finding a different carrier,” Kristensen said at last month’s Agriculture Transportation Coalition meeting. “If the structure of the trade is the underlying issue, changing providers would only go so far.”
The South Pacific’s shipping environment is fundamentally different from global hubs. Logistics decisions sometimes need to address specific realities of the given trade environment. Details, such as port options, service connections and room to recover when shipments “move off window” are critical, the ocean line president said.
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Kristensen described the region’s shipping conditions as inherently unpredictable. Global models, designed for high-volume trade between major ports, don’t translate well to the South Pacific. The lack of buffer in Fiji’s supply chain—where a single missed connection can cascade into delays—made direct control more appealing than relying on third-party carriers.
“A service built around the region doesn’t eliminate complexity,” Kristensen said. “It manages it through local knowledge, established relationships, and practical routing decisions.”
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Neptune Pacific hasn’t ruled out similar moves in the future, but for now, Fiji Water has returned to traditional shipping arrangements. The episode showed how fragile supply chains can become when global networks fail to account for regional realities.
For companies sourcing from remote locations, Kristensen suggested, the lesson isn’t necessarily to own the entire logistics chain. It’s to recognize when standard solutions won’t work—and to adapt before disruptions force the issue.