Not so instant soup.

Not so instant soup.

It's 1970.

A group of executives at Unilever get together in London.

The focus of the discussion is on their new instant soup product.

Making it possible to dissolve powdered soup in boiling water in just 5 seconds.

Henri Peteri, head of research, is one of those present at the meeting.

He has travelled over from his base in the Netherlands.

But he is left quietly thinking:

"And to do that, you have to wait 5 minutes for the kettle to boil."

Not so instant.

So when Henri returned home.

He went into his basement.

And started to develop a prototype of the first boiling-water tap in the world.

His wife wasn't particularly enthusiastic about the idea at first.

Henri wasn't driven by money.

He was driven by inspiration and what could be useful to mankind.

So she lent her support.

And Henri continued to work away on his side project.

Registering his first patent for the design in 1972.

Forty of his prototypes were sold to family and friends.

They loved the product.

But it broke down too frequently for commercial adoption.

In fact, Henri had to put his project on the back-burner in the late seventies.

His eldest son, Niels, graduated in October 1985 and loved his father's vision.

So jumped into the project on a full time basis with him.

And was to be followed in 1993 by his younger brother, Walter.

The three Peteri's have transformed access to boiling water in kitchens across Europe.

Saving wasted water and electricity along the way.

Through Quooker's unique design.

Truly inspirational.

Thank you to the additional two subscribers to this newsletter over the past week. It’s great to have all 390 of you on this journey.

Please do like, comment, ask any questions, and continue to share this newsletter far and wide.

All the best from the South West.

Benjamin Western

Co-Founder at Showing Up & Showing Up Foundation | Training for Management Consultants and Sales Teams

2 年

Such a great (and inspiring) story

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