CLAYTON — Frontenac Crystal Springs is still selling 16.9-ounce bottles of water, but the product is no longer made in Clayton.

Instead, it's bottled by Nirvana Inc. at a facility in Boonville.

Frontenac President Joseph D. Colello said the decision to outsource the single-serving bottles was made earlier this year for economic reasons.

"Due to the cost, it was a considerable amount of savings having someone else doing it," he said.

The agreement with Nirvana, finalized in April, only affects what are known as "personal size" bottles. These smaller sizes represent between 10 and 15 percent of his company's business, Mr. Colello said.

Frontenac's 3- and 5-gallon bottles will continue to be filled and shipped from the Clayton facility, he said.

No jobs were lost as a result of the change, Mr. Colello said.

Mr. Colello said the continued lack of the more powerful three-phase power lines along Route 4 were not a factor in the decision to outsource product. He said his company continues to work with National Grid and local economic development agencies to install the lines.

In the past, company officials have said that Frontenac needed the three-phase power lines in order to remain in Clayton. Mr. Colello said on Thursday that Frontenac is committed to remaining at its current location.

"We're not looking to go anywhere else," he said.

Mr. Colello said that rising costs of bottle caps, cardboard packaging, freight and production were to blame for the decision to send the small bottle production to Nirvana.

The 16.9-ounce bottles are made from polyethylene terephthalate, or PETE, commonly used in recyclable plastic containers.

Rising costs of petroleum, a component of PETE, mean that the price of the material has recently increased by 15 percent to 20 percent.

Late last year, Frontenac began a six-month study to determine if it is possible to reduce expenditures and keep the small bottle production in-house.

Frontenac has an annual production of 1 million of the personal-sized water bottles, or 50,000 cases. In contrast, Mr. Colello estimated that Nirvana will produce 140 million bottles each year for various bottling companies.

Mozafar Rafizadeh, Nirvana's chief executive officer and president, did not return requests for comment.

Ultimately, Frontenac concluded that an agreement with Nirvana, with its greater buying power and faster machinery, would result in a 20 percent savings, Mr. Colello said.

"This is the only thing we could have done to be competitive," he said, adding that the agreement was not advertised for fear that local residents might get the wrong impression.

"We didn't want people to think there were issues here. It was all economics, making sure that we were conditioned to grow," he said.

As a result of the outsourcing agreement, labels on Frontenac's personal size bottles have changed from light to dark blue.

The distribution description was also modified from the original "bottled at the source in the Beautiful 1000 Islands by Frontenac Crystal Springs Water, Inc." to simply "Bottled at the Source" with Nirvana's state certificate number. On the new labels, Frontenac is listed as the distributor.

Beth Goldberg, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said such outsourcing practices were common.

"It's Nirvana's water and they put a Frontenac label on it," she said. "It's a very simple thing."

Clayton Town Supervisor Justin A. Taylor said he didn't relish the outsourcing agreement, but could understand the economic forces behind it.

"I'm a hometown boy, I like having stuff done locally," he said. "When you're looking at dollars and cents, people are going to do what they can."