Well, someone has beat you to it. Sandra Burnett of Sisters' Garden & Catering Company, Kimberly Wordsworth of KBev Inc., and former Nortel manager Greg Murphy have teamed up to form Aquatise, a company that customizes the labels of bottled water for a business, event or cause.

Aquatise is based in North Raleigh at Burnett's catering business at 2400 E. Millbrook Road. Its motto: "Don't just advertise, Aquatise."

A small business or organization can purchase 10 or more cases of bottled water from Aquatise with its logo printed on each bottle's label. Each case carries 24 plastic bottles of 16.9 fluid ounces of water.

Burnett, vice president of Aquatise Inc.'s corporate accounts, said ever since she began importing bottled wine from France with the Sisters' catering logo on the label in 1983, she has had the idea for expanding her catering business to include such a service, but the idea did not come to fruition until she met Wordsworth and Murphy.

Wordsworth's KBev is a national distributor of private label and branded bottled water. Wordsworth said she has been in the bottled water business since 1999. The daughter of a northern Virginia restaurateur, she said she always wanted to make private label bottled water available to caterers and restaurant owners who could not purchase or store the truckloads of water she sold to distributors and national chains.

Before now, "They weren't able to get private label bottled water," said Wordsworth, who is vice president of sales and marketing of Aquatise. "We opened Aquatise to facilitate local and nationwide businesses that could not purchase truckloads [of water], that wanted water for one-time events and trade shows and ongoing marketing of their restaurant, business or their own brand image."

Aquatise has operated for about two months. Burnett believes the company is "one of very few" in North Carolina to offer personalized water labels.

Burnett said the process begins with the organization submitting its logo for the label design and agreeing to purchase at least 10 cases of water.

"You e-mail [the logo] to us and we design it with any info you want. We e-mail it back [for proofing] and sign an agreement," Burnett said.

And for about 50 cents per bottle, the logo and wording is color-printed to labels. The labels are then applied to each of the bottles, which contain Canadian spring water.

"It makes good business sense," she added. For the price of a little more than a stamp, small business owners have a way to build name recognition and customers, Burnett said.

Bottled water is the fastest growing beverage in the United States, Wordsworth said. According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation of New York, wholesale dollar sales for the bottled water industry were $8.3 billion in 2003.

Murphy, who is president of the newly formed venture, said the chambers of commerce in Raleigh, Cary, Louisburg and Morrisville have placed orders with Aquatise. He added that York Simpson Underwood realty company has signed on and is supplying agents with their own line of personalized water bottles from Aquatise. York's real estate agents can order bottles of water with their picture and contact information on the labels.

Janice Dunham, executive director of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, purchased 25 cases of water with her organization's logo and the dates of this year's Tar River Festival -- Sept. 16, 17 and 18.

"It is a great way to do some pre-marketing for the Tar River Festival," Dunham said. She plans to use their private label water for business after-hour events and for talks with prospective Chamber members.

Dunham said the private label water is a "great" promotional tool and is great for their budget, as well. "We're very excited to have this product. It's a good resource," she said.

Aquatise's management team, with a current staff of 11, plans to take the company national. In addition to local sales representatives, others have already been hired in Virginia.

Staff writer Delawese Fulton can be reached at 919-836-4952 or dfulton@newsobserver.com.