British businessman makes a fortune selling bottled fresh air to the Chinese

British businessman says he has made nearly
£16,000 selling bottles of fresh-air to China for a
breath-taking £80 a bottle. Leo De Watts, aged
27, claims Britain boasts the “ Louis Vuitton ” of
finest fresh air. The smog-plagued elite in Beijing
and Shanghai have already snapped up early
200 of his 580ml decanters of British air in just a
few weeks.
Leo sends friends and relatives out into the
countryside - as far away from pollution as
possible - to bottle fresh air.
His team of air-gricultural workers carry the
bottles in adapted fishing nets - which are held
aloft as they stride through muddy fields to
harvest fresh air.
The bottles are left open for up to 10 minutes to
capture the full fresh-air aroma - and ensure no
grass or bugs get into the “organic” product.
Leo has been exporting bottles of fresh air from
Dorset, Somerset, Wales, Wiltshire and Yorkshire
to the Far East.
When customers open the bottle, the “experience”
of inhaling the fresh-air lasts just a few seconds.
But some Chinese are also buying the air-tight
bottles as novelty gifts that will never be opened.
Leo, from Gillingham, Dorset, claims each area of
Britain has its own unique air aroma.
He said:
“I would say on the whole that Dorset air
seems to pick up a few more scents of the
ocean, as the breeze flows up the Jurassic
Coast and over the lush pastures.
“Whereas air from the Yorkshire Dales tends
to filter it’s way through much more flora,
so the scent captures the subtle tones of
the surrounding fields, giving different
qualities to the collection.
“Our customers all have high disposal
incomes and want to buy gifts for someone
- or someone wants to use it.
“There is a serious point to this though as
Beijing, Zhuhai, and Shanghai are the major
places where pollution is quite bad, whether
it is the fault of the rest of the world or its
China’s responsibility, we have a case of
people living in smog.”
A firm in Canada sells bottled Rocky Mountain air
to China but Leo is leading the British charge.
He said:
“I saw a few reports of people importing
bottles of air and thought it was a bit
ridiculous myself, and then I thought about
it.
“When someone bottled water everyone
thought it was ridiculous, now you have
Evian and Volvic - why not bottle air?
“We are priced as a luxury item - it is not
for every-day customers. If they want
something that is cheaper they can buy it.
“Think of us as being the equivalent of
Louis Vuitton or Gucci, we are not likely to
appeal to a mass market.
It is really a cottage industry at the moment - we
have got a few people around the country who go
out and bottle it.
"It doesn’t require that many people and
you can collect quite a lot in one go and
you don’t have to pay for it.”
His company is called Aethaer, which is from the
ancient Greek word for pure fresh air.