FROM BARNSLEY NURSERY TO NATIONAL BLUE-CHIP BOARDROOMS

Managing Director Ian Hobson (left) with Customer Service Director Steve Grigg.

Cascade Water Systems Ltd was born in 1997 in the back bedroom of a semi-detached house in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

Cascade's founders, Ian and Angela Hobson had become involved in the water industry following Ian's medical retirement as a police officer the previous year when he was introduced to the concept of 'water filtration' by a family friend who loaned them a water filter to try.

They were amazed at the difference it made to the tap water, which due to the location near to a water treatment works, smelt and tasted strongly of chlorine, causing the inconvenience and expense of buying litres and litres of bottled water each week.

Ian also realised that a water filter was a product that everyone would benefit from but hardly anybody had and even with his non business police background he recognised a powerful business opportunity.  Also despite his lack of business background he recognised the power of building a satisfied customer base that would continue to repeat purchase as long as they were looked after and supported.

Cascade as an infant was small, but slowly the embryonic customer base began to grow and the foundations were laid to support what would become a national company, with repeat customers in every single postcode area in the UK.

In 'the old days', professionalism and customer service were the quintessential  epitome of Cascade, as remains massively important today.  Everyone at Cascade is proud to be part of the company's success and achievements and are always readily prepared to go the extra mile to give customers '100% satisfaction, 100% of the time'.

Cascade's nursery in the Barnsley back bedroom was soon outgrown and after renting space in a business centre for a couple of years Cascade moved into its current premises at Cascade House, Hoyland, Barnsley which was an ideal location from which to support customers up and down the country due to its location near to the M1 motorway.

After 5 years of mainly serving domestic water filter customers Cascade ventured into the big wide commercial world and introduced mains-fed water dispensers into their product range and previous small tentative steps became giant strides.

Mains-fed water dispensers were quite a leading edge alternative to traditional bottled water coolers that used heavy, expensive water bottles and gave the users of these antiquated machines the headaches of water running out, administrative issues, not to mention the problems of Health and Safety issues caused by the need to lift the heavy 19 litre water bottles.

As Cascade approached adulthood it really had to shift up several gears as Ian and Angela and their now fellow director Steve Grigg and national account manager Chris Beck found themselves in front of potential corporate customers, often senior buyers, from blue chip companies.

Honesty, hard work and integrity prevailed and Cascade now supports over 15,000 domestic and 2,500 commercial customers throughout the UK providing water coolers for offices to such prestigious names as The Arcadia Group (Top Shop, Burtons, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins etc.), Coca-Cola, and NHS hospitals to name but a few.

Cascade's establishment within the corporate sector brought other challenges from the 'big boys' with client's often expecting, and sometimes demanding such accreditation as ISO 9001.  Cascade from it's conception had always worked to strict working practices and systems and the ISO 9001 assessor was amazed that only 2 minor changes were required to Cascade's existing operating procedures to qualify the company for ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems certification.  This is audited annually to ensure Cascade remains at the top of it's organisational game.

Other growing pains included the need for a robust Health & Safety Policy and Personnel Management Support and Cascade achieved this requirement in conjunction with Peninsular Business Services Ltd, the UK's leader in this field.  In 2008 Cascade was proud to receive a rarely awarded and much coveted 'Certificate of Achievement' for Commitment to Workplace Health, Safety and Welfare from the Managing Director of Peninsular Business Services.  The relationship with Peninsular means that Cascade remain at the leading edge of Health & Safety awareness and the Personnel support ensures that the Cascade team can be properly supported too. 

Today Cascade remains as focused on its customers as ever and realises that if it does not look after its customers then someone else will and it is through this ethos that very few customers leave the company and 'jump ship' to Cascade's competitors.

More recently Cascade has responded to customer demands and has added vending services to it's product portfolio and within the last few months has become one of the first companies in the UK to be able to offer customers a brand new innovative water filter systems product in the form of a 'Hot Water Tap' that dispenses near boiling water over the sink and alleviates the need for kettles and water boilers at home and work.

Even in maturity Cascade still retains a family run feel to it and even though many more staff are now involved in supporting Cascades customers, the original management team remain at the helm and are always available to offer their experience to ensure customers receive the very best of service.

Thank you to all of Cascade's customers both old and new, it has been a pleasure to do business with you in the past and everyone at Cascade looks forward to supporting you long into the future.