17 May 2011 – The UK’s largest water cooler trade association, the EDWCA, has issued a warning against the use of unregulated and unaccredited water cooler suppliers. The European Drinking Water Cooler Association warns that drinking water quality and hygiene is being compromised by unregulated and untrained distributors.

According to the chairman of the EDWCA, James Anderton, the need to ensure that installation and maintenance of a water cooler meets stringent water regulation and hygiene requirements is an imperative; “Our aim is to ensure that the highest standards of hygiene and safety of drinking water is assured in order to protect the consumer. To achieve this we require our supplier members to undergo a strict annual audit.  With 149 companies on our register, we know that there is a healthy market of choice for buyers, but those that fall outside our membership – or those companies that fail our stringent audits – may not fulfil essential criteria for safe and reliable delivery.”

The EDWCA audit described by Anderton is an independent annual process. It is a tough evaluation of supplier installation and hygiene standards which are compared to strict EDWCA guidelines. It reinforces the standards demanded at point of membership, which scrutinises the sites and systems of drinking water providers and may include biological checks on the quality of water being delivered by them.  ‘Uniformity of quality service’ is quoted by the EDWCA as one of the key aims for the audit and it encompasses ‘the essential operations and good practice required by the relevant food and water legislation’.  The audit standards include sanitation, installation, filtration, bottled water, water contact surfaces, staff training, hygiene, cooler records, documentation, transport, quality control and risk assessment.

Both mains connected water cooler suppliers (or point of use, ‘POU’) and bottled water cooler suppliers are vetted by the EDWCA, with categories of membership that cover distributors and operators, bottling plants and suppliers to the industry.

According to the association, the market is evenly split between POU and bottled water coolers, with compelling reasons for both methods of delivery.  POU, which involves the re-treatment of drinking water at the point of consumption to improve taste, has clear advantages says Anderton:  Using mains-fed water reduces costs, reduces environmental impact and simplifies operation.  According to the EDWCA,  the increase in the mains fed share of the market is being led by members of the association offering customers the highest standards of installation and quality.  Bottled water meanwhile remains the preference for situations where mains connection would be impractical.

For those interested in understanding more about the drinking water industry, the EDWCA is co- hosting AVEX 2011, together with the AVA (Automatic Vending Association).  This is the largest water and vending show in the UK and will be held at the NEC from 15-16 June.  Free seminars will be held at AVEX, including one on water filters with speakers from market leaders such as 3M, Fairey Ceramics, Pentair, Pureflow and Fileder.  For those interested in learning more about correct POU installation to the mains, the EDWCA we will be offering a free video, available at the show.”

“We urge those buying and specifying the supply of drinking water coolers to consider carefully the credentials of the suppliers they choose,” stressed Anderton.  “Those that are accredited by the EDWCA are rigorously inspected and assessed – creating confidence that they will consistently deliver safe drinking water to the highest standards of hygiene and quality.”

Powwow, which has its headquarters on the Oxford Business Park, Cowley, was taken into administration by financial recovery firm Deloitte on Thursday evening with about 50 staff told the bad news after turning up for work this Friday morning.

We are also keen to hear from any ex powwow employees who may be interested in a career within London’s leading bottled and bottleless water cooler company. We are based and focused on London but provide a nationwide network for bottleless water cooler solutions through www.thewatercoolercompany.com.

The Water Cooler Company supply bottleless water coolers and drinking water fountains to customers across London. We are one of the few remaining independent water companies within the UK. To contact us plese call 0845 500 4455 or email contact@thewatercoolercompany.com to get a quote. Our full range of water coolers can be seen at www.thewatercoolercompany.com.

A new public health health campaign is being launched, with a £100 million backing from the Government, to try and encourage young people to drink less alcohol and more water on nights out. But will it be money well spent?

On a day where it was announced British girls are the worst drunks, it’s fitting that there was also a new announcement about the Governments latest plans to try and tackle the binge drinking culture in the UK.  The largest media campaign against alcohol abuse will be launched under the slogan ‘Why let good times go bad?’.

The campaign is going to be targetting pretty much every angle, ranging from beer mats printed with the slogan, stickers in off licences, to television adverts warning about ending your night badly.  Britain has long had a reputation as one of the biggest drinkers in Europe, and also as a country with the worst reputation for getting drunk abroad and causing trouble.  The Government is desperately trying to find ways to get rid of the stereotype, as not only is it bad for the countries image, but a huge amount of taxpayers money is spent on policing town centres to try and stop fights during pub and club closing time.

A huge amount of time is also spent treating people who have managed to injure themselves whilst having a night out on the town, either through fights, falls or drink driving accidents.  One of the aims that we found interesting here at The Water Cooler Company is to try and increase the amount of water that people drink on nights out.  In pubs they are going to be putting up posters with a picture of a pint glass full of water, with the tagline “Free pints all night.  Ask your bar staff for a drink of water”.  Whether this will lead to ‘merry’ people only reading the first sentence and getting very excited about free beer all night is yet to be seen… Nevertheless if it does encourage people to take on more water on a night out it can only be a good thing.

One of the campaigns that we can’t see working too well is the attempt at relating to young people out drinking by using supposed ‘lads humour’. One of the planned posters is going to have an image of beer goggles, and have the caption “Afraid you’ll pull a moose?  Stay focused by pacing your drinks”.  Funny? Not really. Patronizing?  Just a tad.

There’s even some speculation that this could lead venues and pubs to be installed with a water cooler or two to show the government they are making an effort to give their customers free water.

If you have any questions or comments about this article please feel free to leave a comment, or email sales@thewatercoolercompany.com.

The press is today concentrating on comments from one of Britains’ top scientists, Professor John Beddington, the world is heading towards a ‘perfect storm’.  The culmination of the population increasing, alongside the decrease in the amount of food and energy available could lead to severe consequences.  Making having a plumbed in water cooler even more important.

Articles on both the BBC and The Guardian websites have been published saying that by 2030 the world will be in a crisis due to a combination of agricultural, environmental and social factors.   The reports make for fairly grim reading, and although parts of it is speculation, many scientists are in agreement that unless some changes are made it certainly could happen.

The reasons for the bad outlook is that it’s thought that in 2030 many of the affecting factors will come to a peak.  With the worlds population steadily increasing at an alarming rate, the need for crops and water is going to be higher than ever.  However, at the current moment there is only a food reserve of 14% of the entire population.  Climate change is something that could seriously affect this, if severe weather leads to floods or a draught many crops could be destroyed, leading to a serious shortage across the globe.

The big question is that even if  a disaster did not take place, whether we are still going to be able to keep up with the increase in population.  With a lot of our energy sources becoming less and less viable, the challenge is to either find a suitable, sustainable alternate energy source, or to ensure that in the meantime we do not push our luck in regards to our energy use at the moment.

Water is also one issue that the professor raises, in under developed parts of the world it is very much a struggle to find a constant supply of clean water to drink.  Therefore it’s more important than ever to make sure as little water as possible is wasted, and that the water you do drink is from an environmentally ethical source.  There’s not really a better way to ensure this than drinking water from the normal mains supply.  By having a plumbed in water cooler you are making sure that your home or office is only being supplied with water that hasn’t been transported for hundreds of miles, or is being stored in plastic bottles that are an unneccesary waste.

If you have any questions about this article, or about our water cooler range feel free to leave a comment or ring us on 0845 500 4455.

The Guardian has launched a scathing attack on the BBC after it was revealed that £406,000 was spent on providing their premises with bottled water.  The article, although very harsh on the BBC, does raise some interesting points about what larger corporations should be doing in relation to their water coolers.

It’s very easy these days to jump on the bandwagon of blasting every single business (particularly those that are publically funded) for spending unneccesarily.   It does seem that the poor old Beeb has taken a battering in the press during the past few months, sometimes for perfectly valid reasons, but calling for one of the most popular websites to be shut down seems a tad silly…

Here at the Water Cooler Company we like to take a bit of a calmer attitude to the whole fiasco, yes it is does seem like a huge figure tobe spending on water that is no better than the stuff that comes out of our taps, but some of the comments on the article are a slightly over the top.

What is often the case is that a company doesn’t realise how simple it is to switch to a plumbed in water cooler system, people think it take a long time to have all their coolers replaced and have new ones installed.  If the BBC were to switch to mainly plumbed in water coolers they could save money and help the environment (as well as get the Guardian/Telegraph/Daily Mail/Sun/Tories/etc off their back).

Alongside the comments against the BBC spending, there were also alot attacking the Guardian for what some described as ‘lazy journalism’.  Saying it’s far too easy to call for a Freedom of Information Act and then writing a short sensationalized article with a big number in the headline.  Now the cost per employee for the water that the BBC is receiving is actually a fairly normal rate for bottled water coolers, so the numbers aren’t too staggering.  But the Guardian do have a very good point saying that the environmental impact is a lot larger than having plumbed in water coolers.

Even if you do not fully trust what comes out of yout tap, a plumbed in water cooler filters all the water, making sure it is very clean and completely safe to drink.  We’ve also read that the BBC are in fact starting to roll out plumbed in water coolers across the offices where they are able to be installed.

If you have any questions about plumbed in water coolers, or any other queries please email us at contact@thewatercoolercompany.com or call on 0845 500 4455.

There is certainly purpose in the community and news aspect and to this end we have simply integrated all blog postings to appear on Twitter as we release them.

If you go to our Twitter site and become a follower you can be notified of all of our blog postings as they are released. Just go to twitter.com/watercoolercomp and become a follower. We know we’re not quite at the cutting edge of use of Twitter but you won’t find another water cooler company who has gone this far. Except The Water Delivery Company who beat us by a month (and they are run by the same people as us).

If you have any questions visit our main website - www.thewatercoolercompany.com - or call 0845 500 4455.

So finally we have maybe reached the beginning of the end for London on Tap. The Water Cooler Company salutes the ideas that the campaign has put forward and is keen to see where it next focuses its efforts.

The launch of the recycled glass carafe, designed specifically for serving tap water in the capital’s  bars,  eateries  and  businesses,  has taken a while to work its way through selection to production – but is finally here. The  winning design – by industrial  designer  Neil  Barron – is now available for sale. The Water Cooler Company will be promoting and selling the iconic water jug (we like it) to customers across London and the UK.

Tap  Top,  with  its four non-drip pouring spouts forming a traditional tap head shape, can be ordered by contacting us on 0845 500 4455 and can be branded with any organisations’ logo.

The  London  On  Tap campaign was launched in February 2008, in order to emphasise to customers that there are alternatives to bottled water on sale. This idea is close to the ideas that The Water Cooler Company has been following for over four years through its drinking water solutions to the catering industry.

The  campaign  has  garnered  support  from  celebrity chefs, environmental groups, businesses and even the remaining members of parliament who have not resigned recently. We hope that London both accepts and appreciates all that the carafe stands for – the right for customers to choose.

The attachment - water-cooler-company-london-on-tap  - shows some press coverage in the Evening Standard. Our question is whether Aldo Zilli would support “Free the snail” campaign if it gave him a free slice of publicity.

Our industry is divided into two main categories – bottled water coolers and bottleless water coolers (sometimes refered to as plumbed coolers or POU within the industry).

In 2008 Zenith International estimated there to be over 430,000 bottled water coolers in active use in the UK – and around 230,000 bottleless water coolers. Over the last few years the main area of growth has been the bottleless water coolers – and this has been reflected in our experience. The Water Delivery Company establised a separate brand – “The Water Cooler Company” – in 2005 to focus on the needs of the bottleless market and has enjoyed steady growth since then.

If the UK market continues to develop in the same way as the American market it is very possible that the industry will over time be split 50/50 between bottled and bottleless water coolers. Within the central London market this is likely to mainly in the traditional water cooler market – due to the age of the buildings. In contrast the outer reaches of London are likely to increasingly look to integrated drinking water fountain and water boiler solutions which can provide a longer-term integrated water facility for offices.

The water cooler market in the UK is still relatively young – celebrating its twentieth year in 2009 – and it is a rapidly evolving market. The Water Cooler Company is primed to innovate and grow within this marketplace.

“WIAPS is funded by most of the Water Suppliers to administer an approved plumbers scheme for them. In order to become a WIAPS member, a plumber has to show he has been suitably trained as a plumber, that he has adequate knowledge of the Regulations by passing an assessment and that he has sufficient public liability insurance cover.

There is no membership fee for a plumber who wants to join WIAPS but there is a charge for taking the assessment of regulations knowledge through WIAPS. Water Suppliers often get asked by their customers to recommend a plumber. On request, they will provide their customers with details of Approved Plumbers. The details are also freely available to the public on this website.”

The benefit of having a water cooler company with  engineers qualified to the level of the WIAPS scheme is that when they are installing plumbed water coolers they do not need to have the permission of the local water authority. If you are using engineers who are not qualified within the WIAPS scheme or installing the water cooler yourself, then you are legally obliged to notify the local water authority and get their permission for the proposed plumbed water cooler installation.

If you would like to have a plumbed water cooler in London or across the the wider UK by qualified engineers please either use our contact form, call us on 0845 500 4455 or email contact@thewatercoolercompany.com. Alternatively you may find that a bottled water cooler is an easier option for your office environment.

For the bottleless water cooler industry WRAS certification is an optional level of certification that products supplied to customers can adhere to. It shows that the supplier is looking to a certain level of quality in both supplier products and also in the internal installation techniques it follows. This is a very important consideration for bottleless water cooler customers as the quality of plumbing and water coolers is key to having a secured water provision solution in place.

The WRAS authority aims to

a) To promote knowledge of the Water Regulations throughout the UK and to encourage their consistent interpretation and enforcement, for the prevention of waste, undue consumption, misuse, erroneous measurement or contamination of water.

b) To provide an advisory service for and on behalf of Water Suppliers and for any other person or body seeking guidance on the principles of Water Regulations.

c) To consult on behalf of the water supply industry in the UK with Government, with professional, trade and other organisations, with fittings and materials manufacturers and others regarding the Water Regulations and related matters.

d) To develop criteria for testing materials and fittings to assess their compliance with the Regulators’ Specifications for approved products in accordance with the Water Regulations.

(e) To assess the results of the testing of materials and fittings to determine their compliance with the Regulators’ Specifications and to publish up-to-date lists of satisfactory materials and fittings in the Scheme’s Water Fittings and Materials Directory.

(f) To administer for those Water Suppliers who wish it, a scheme to assess, register and publicise Approved Contractors in accordance with the Water Regulations.

(g) To participate in the representation of the UK Water Supply Industry in the development of relevant, practical and appropriate national and international standards for water fittings and plumbing systems.