Saving the 'wurld' one drop at a time

‘wurld’ is a new brand of bottled water with a difference - 100% of the profit funds clean water projects in the developing world.

The company’s vision is to be much more than just a bottled water company. “’wurld’ offers consumers the chance to switch to a bottled water brand where the destination of profits is life changing,” says ‘wurld’ co-founder Jared Honore. “Currently 1 in 6 people in the world do not have access to clean water, we want to change that!”

‘wurld’ has launched at North Shore’s Christmas Wonderland event which runs until Sunday 6th December, where they are an event sponsor and are also selling their new water to event goers. (www.christmaswonderland.org.nz)

‘wurld’ founders, Jared and Ruth Honore, returned from London in 2008, where they spent 3 years on their OE furthering their finance careers with the BBC and a top UK law firm. They returned to have their first baby (Hugo), to spend time with their late brother-in-law who passed away from cancer earlier this year, and to settle back in to life on the North Shore. "After coming back to NZ and taking some time off for the birth of our baby” says Jared, “I was keen to find an opportunity to use both our business skills to help those in need, instead of climbing back in to the corporate world, so we created 'wurld' water to do just that.” Spending a number of his childhood years in Zambia, Jared has always had a very real perspective on poverty, and Ruth was exposed first hand to the issues when they both visited Africa in 2006 for a few months. It was from this trip and other trips through remote parts of Asia that the passion was ignited for the 'wurld' concept.

“We have identified 5 key areas we believe are core to building healthier and stronger communities, Water, Food, Health, Environment and Love. Each new product will be linked to these areas of need", says Ruth. “We see bottled water as our first product, but want to build a brand where all products are directly linked to their cause.”

'wurld' has what they call a "little less conversation, a little more action" approach, so in line with the 5 causes, 'wurld' supporters volunteer their time freely on the 5th day of each month in a local community project or event.

Charity sceptics rejoice, Jared and Ruth have made this venture possible by Ruth taking up part-time work, living off savings and several house-sits between living back with Jared's parents. “We won’t be taking a salary from 'wurld' at least for the first year” says Ruth. 'wurld' is a registered charity under the Charities Act 2005 and operate the business as a Charitable Trust. This is all towards ensuring consumers can have confidence in 'wurld's motivations, in fact they sponsored their first project in a Samoan village before the tsunami without having even sold a bottle!

www.wurld.org.nz

ENDS

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