NEWS
Gloucestershire’s Water Hero!
Swimmer Ben Hooper was celebrating a watershed moment recently after completing 100,000 lengths at his local pool. The 36-year-old endurance athlete took just one year to accomplish the astonishing feat at the Leisure At Cheltenham pool in Gloucestershire.
He has swum an average of over 2,100 25m lengths each week since April 2014 – a total of 1,566 miles – the same distance as London to Madrid… and back. The father-of-one spent up to six hours a day in the pool using a combination of front crawl and breaststroke.
He completed more than 75,000 lengths in both indoor and outdoor pools across the UK, US and in the Mediterranean, but Hooper reached the 100,000 milestone in the Leisure At Cheltenham pool.
The gruelling undertaking was carried out in preparation for a record-breaking expedition in November in which Ben plans to become the first person to swim “every single mile” of the entire width of the Atlantic Ocean – 2,000 miles between Africa and Brazil.
The ‘Swim The Big Blue’ challenge, which will raise money for a number of good causes, has been described as one of the “greatest unconquered feats of human endurance” by patron Sir Ranulph Fiennes. Father-of-one Ben, who lives in Cheltenham, celebrated the 100,000th length with a piece of chocolate cake.
He said: “Completing 100,000 lengths hasn’t been easy, but it is child’s play compared with the real ocean.”
Tintometer Honoured With Queen’s Award For International Trade
The Tintometer Ltd has announced the honour of being presented with the Queen’s Award for International Trade – the highest distinction that can be bestowed upon a UK company. It wins the award for growth in overseas earnings of 160% over the last six years. “We are so delighted to receive this prestigious award. It is deserved recognition for the hard work and talent of our whole team,” said Chris Counsell, Managing Director, adding: “It is even more important to us when you consider that our export growth was achieved during the peak of the financial crisis and the worst recession in the last 100 years.” The Tintometer Ltd is a 130 year old company, founded in Salisbury in 1885 by Joseph Williams Lovibond. It is now based in Amesbury, Wiltshire, with three other manufacturing sites in the UK and one in India. Over the last 11 years, the family business has grown into an international group, with its headquarters at Tintometer GmbH in Dortmund, Germany. The company manufactures water testing instruments and chemical reagents, and also instruments for measuring colour, all under the Lovibond® brand. Customers are worldwide, with over 75% of sales to countries outside UK. “One of our distinguishing factors is that we have always been a family business,”
20 June 2015 SPN
explained Counsell. “We are now owned by Cay-Peter Voss, whose entrepreneurial spirit has been a key factor in the group’s rapid growth. A family ethos means staff have always been seen as the key to success. A family can take a long term perspective, constantly investing in the company’s development. We also like to be flexible for customers, and to offer them a choice of technologies.” Increasingly the company’s products are
sought after in developing countries, where there is a need to improve water quality and control the colour of products in industrial processes. Realising that the financial crisis would affect demand in traditional export markets, such as the EU and USA, the company focused on growing sales in the Far East, China and India, which were less affected by the slow-down.
According to Marke Reid, Sales and Marketing Director: “We had to increase our sales presence in the countries which were
still showing reasonable GDP growth. So we proceeded to establish our own sales presence in Malaysia first, followed by China and then India. Local nationals have been recruited and they do an excellent job. This local presence means we can better serve our customers and distributors.”
Looking to the future, Counsell confirms that the outlook is bright. “We take a strong ethical stance to doing business, we are increasing our investment in research
and development, and we are looking to improve our service to match the best. Water and colour quality control are two growing markets. The Queen’s Award for International Trade is a very important accolade for us, and the team will be building on this to achieve even more in the years to come.”
The Tintometer Limited 01980 664800
www.lovibond.com
www.swimmingpoolnews.co.uk
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