IN yet another wry and deliberate swipe at the bottled water industry, Yorkshire Water is to trade mark its tap water as "Icytonic".

It becomes the only water company in the UK to register its core product "alongside the likes of Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Lucozade," says its spokesman.

The Yorkshire Water promotion states: "With a plethora of 'isotonic' sports drinks on the market, Icytonic offers sporty customers a refreshing alternative which costs less than halfapenny a litre, is available from any cold tap in Yorkshire and doesn't contain any calories or colourings. It's also best served chilled!

The Icytonic brand is the latest move in Yorkshire Water's campaign to cock a snook at the pricey finesse of the bottled water market.

It has already campaigned for the public to "ask for it by name" - so that when restaurant customers are offered the choice between sparkling and still water, they can ask for Yorkshire Water from the tap, please."

Yorkshire Water promotions teams also handed out 25,000 free bottles of what it called Teamtonic last Summer, in major conurbations including York city centre.

The total budget for the launch and free bottles was £15,000 representing only 0.03p per customer, said the spokesman.

"But this compares well with promotion budgets of similar utility companies and through awareness represents an ultimate saving for our customers".

Richard Flint, Yorkshire Water's water business unit director, said: "The links between water, sport and health are well known and documented and this year we wanted our campaign to promote this message. We came up with Icytonic as a brand in its own right and because of its success we have decided to register it as a trade mark.

"By doing this we are the first water company to effectively register our core product, namely tap water. We have a great product, and the fact it's available from every cold tap in the Yorkshire region for less than half a pence per litre we'd be mad not to protect its name.

"So from now Icytonic is only available in Yorkshire. Anything else is a copy!"

Yorkshire Water's promotion of tap water above its bottled rivals has been made easier because the region's supply has been rated the best ever by the Drinking Water Inspectorate, with a 99.95 per cent rating after stringent UK and EU tests involving 260,000 samples for cleanliness and mineral content.

Updated: 11:14 Wednesday, October 27, 2004