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Tumai
Water In the News Coming Soon - Tumai Partners |
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Story by CHRISTINE MILLER FORD MARTINSBURG -- Does the world really need another brand of bottled spring water? Bob Downey, who heads Spero Group Inc., the Martinsburg company marketing Tumai Water, says that yes, the world literally does. Anti-poverty programs in South Africa and elsewhere get part of the proceeds from every bottle of Tumai purchased. |
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The water, which can boast the title “Best Tasting Bottled Water in the World” after taking top honors at the Berkeley Springs’ annual water tasting competition earlier this year, is sold in stores in dozens of counties in West Virginia as well as in five other states in the Northeast. It also has distributors as far away as Texas, California and even Europe in negotiations to carry the brand. “Everyone drinks bottled water and our water costs the same as all the other products on the shelf,’’ Downey explains. “But because we use proceeds to bring safe drinking water, food, clothes, education and other help to some of the poorest parts of the world, this is a way for people to get the drink they need and do a good deed at the same time.” The name Tumai translates to “hope” in Swahili and the company employs the slogan, “Need a Drink, Drink for a Need.” Downey said he wanted to enter the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting competition in February “hoping just to get our name out there.” Winning the big prize generated coverage in news outlets ranging from CNN and the BBC to USA Today, the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. Distributors began flooding Downey with offers to carry the brand, which is bottled from a spring near Danville, Va. Read the entire article at the WV State Jounal: http://www.statejournal.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=39667
Tumai Water won the Gold medal
for "bottled non-carbonated" water at the 2008 Berkeley
Springs Water Tasting Festival.
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Check out the festival's website for more info. |
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 Photo by Jeanne Mozier |
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Articles appeared around the world announcing
Tumai Water's win: |
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Company Sends Hope in a Bottle One West Virginia company has found a unique way to bring hope to the less fortunate: It is bottling it. The Spero Group, headquartered in Martinsburg, recently launched a brand of bottled water called “Tumai Means to Hope,” and the company, which is designed to run like a nonprofit organization, has pledged to donate money left over from production and operating costs directly to African relief efforts, according to Robert Downey, the company’s managing director. Downey said buying the water is a way
that everyone can do a good deed. Martinsburg Water Company Takes
Top Prize While Saving Lives (02/25/2008) The best tasting water title goes to a Martinsburg business. Tumai Water doesn't just bottle water, it's also saving lives in Africa. Children at an orpanage in Africa now have fresh food, thanks, in part, to Bob Downey and his business partners. Downey operates Tumai Water out of his home in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He says, "It's amazing things that have happened, that we've been able to accomplish with so little money."
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