Today, Belu, the UK’s most ethical water brand, is proud to announce that it has officially been named a CoolBrand for 2012/13 – an influential annual initiative to identify the UK’s coolest brands.Belu, which donates all profits to clean water charity, WaterAid, is the only British water brand to achieve the status this year and is one of only a handful of non-profit companies to appear on the list.
The CoolBrands list, now in its eleventh year, follows a vote by a combination of just under 3,000 consumers and a panel of 39 designers, style experts, media personalities and prominent figures from the worlds of TV, fashion and music. Helping rate coolness this year were the likes of Radio 1 DJ, Gemma Cairney, fashion blogger, Susie Bubble, hip-hop duo, Rizzle Kicks, celebrity chef, Gizzi Erskine, and musician, actor and director, Plan B.
Belu will use its new ‘cool’ status to encourage people to stop drinking imported brands and drink British water instead. The social enterprise has promised to never export its products and questions why people would want to drink imported water. Belu can be found on the shelves in Sainsbury’s and continues to develop working relationships with respected industry names such as Fifteen, Nobu, Smiths of Smithfield, Polpo and Le Manoir Aux’Quat’Saisons.
Karen Lynch, Managing Director of Belu, said, ‘we are thrilled to achieve CoolBrands status, this really is the icing on the cake for what has been a successful two years for Belu.‘We are striving to change the way people perceive social enterprises and to be named as a CoolBrand really helps.
‘In 2011 we pledged to donate a minimum of £300,000 to WaterAid over the following three years to help transform the lives of 20,000 people – in our first year alone we have exceeded our targets by donating £199,100. This legacy, along with our pledge to never export our products, use only recycled glass and plastic and remain 100% carbon neutral, has helped us prove that non-profit companies can be cool.’