In the News

November 2010: Caring plughole brand Buster has raised £22,000 for Oxfam during National Plughole Week 2010 (10th-17th July), more than doubling last year’s fundraising efforts to help the 1.2 billion people worldwide who do not have access to clean, safe water.

The money was raised through National Plughole Week’s ‘Bottle for Change’ campaign which encouraged individuals, schools, clubs and organisations of all sizes, to save coins in specially branded water bottles.

Further fundraising came from a five pence donation on every bottle of Buster sold during the campaign, plus a generous £10,000 donation from this year’s major National Plughole Week partner Dyno-Rod, the drain and plumbing specialists.

Buster brand manager Louise Perry, said: “We are proud and delighted to be able to present Oxfam with £22,000, more than double the amount we raised last year through National Plughole Week. Each day 5,000 children die due to unclean drinking water. The money we have raised, with the help of our partners, will save lives.”

Just £4 is enough for Oxfam to provide life saving water filtration buckets for two families in the developing world.

Oxfam Corporate Partnerships Manager Chris Ashworth, added: “Bottle for Change has been a fantastic campaign and once again, we are very grateful for the support of Buster and National Plughole Week. The money raised through the appeal will make a big difference to the lives of those who do not have access to clean, safe drinking water.”

It’s not too late to contribute to the 2010 campaign. For further information visit www.nationalplugholeweek.com  or to make a donation, please click on http://www.justgiving.com/plugholeweekwithoxfam.

For further information on Buster visit www.plugholesneedlovetoo.com.

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For further information please contact:

Rachel Cass, Project PR

01473 326406 or 07951 714208

rachel.cass@projectpr.co.uk

Notes to editors:

1. Buster’s range of kitchen and bathroom plughole unblocking and plughole cleaning treatments were tested independently against their brand name competitors under laboratory conditions at Intertek Research in July 2005.
2. Buster is the only range of plughole treatment products to tackle the individual needs of kitchens and bathrooms. It is the champion of the Plugholecare market and has grown 18% in 2008.
3. Priced at £3.29 (RRP) for 300gm, Buster is stocked in Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, Wilkinson, Tesco, Morrisons and independent hardware stores. Visit www.plugholesneedlovetoo.com

November 2010: Caring plughole brand Buster has raised £22,000 for Oxfam during National Plughole Week 2010 (10th-17th July), more than doubling last year’s fundraising efforts to help the 1.2 billion people worldwide who do not have access to clean, safe water.

The money was raised through National Plughole Week’s ‘Bottle for Change’ campaign which encouraged individuals, schools, clubs and organisations of all sizes, to save coins in specially branded water bottles.

Further fundraising came from a five pence donation on every bottle of Buster sold during the campaign, plus a generous £10,000 donation from this year’s major National Plughole Week partner Dyno-Rod, the drain and plumbing specialists.

Buster brand manager Louise Perry, said: “We are proud and delighted to be able to present Oxfam with £22,000, more than double the amount we raised last year through National Plughole Week. Each day 5,000 children die due to unclean drinking water. The money we have raised, with the help of our partners, will save lives.”

Just £4 is enough for Oxfam to provide life saving water filtration buckets for two families in the developing world.

Oxfam Corporate Partnerships Manager Chris Ashworth, added: “Bottle for Change has been a fantastic campaign and once again, we are very grateful for the support of Buster and National Plughole Week. The money raised through the appeal will make a big difference to the lives of those who do not have access to clean, safe drinking water.”

It’s not too late to contribute to the 2010 campaign. For further information visit www.nationalplugholeweek.com or to make a donation, please click on http://www.justgiving.com/plugholeweekwithoxfam.

For further information on Buster visit www.plugholesneedlovetoo.com.

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Notes to editors:

1. Buster’s range of kitchen and bathroom plughole unblocking and plughole cleaning treatments were tested independently against their brand name competitors under laboratory conditions at Intertek Research in July 2005.
2. Buster is the only range of plughole treatment products to tackle the individual needs of kitchens and bathrooms. It is the champion of the Plugholecare market and has grown 18% in 2008.
3. Priced at £3.29 (RRP) for 300gm, Buster is stocked in Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, Wilkinson, Tesco, Morrisons and independent hardware stores. Visit www.plugholesneedlovetoo.com

Nobody will be thirsty this Sunday when over 1,000 young people and many more spectators attend the 11^th Suffolk Youth Games, which take place in Bury St Edmunds at Abbeycroft Leisure Centre. Suffolk company Challs International has donated over 2,000 special bottles of mineral water for athletes and spectators which it hopes everyone will drink and then use their empty containers to save spare change for Oxfam during National Plughole Week.

The Redrow Suffolk Youth Games, organised by Suffolk Sport (the county sports partnership) is the largest festival of youth sport in the county and sees teams from the seven local authorities competing in nine different sports. Both able bodied and disabled young people aged 9 – 13 take part.

Louise Perry, Buster Brand Manager, Challs International, says: “We wish all the competitors a fantastic day on Sunday and hope that after the games people will help us with our Bottle for Change fund raising which will help make a big difference to people in poor countries who don’t have access to clean, safe water.”

A bottle filled with 1p coins (approx £4) is enough for Oxfam to provide life saving water filtration buckets for two families. Bottle for Change is part of National Plughole Week (10-17 July) which raises awareness and funds to address the lack of sanitation in developing countries.

If you would like to participate in the Bottle for Change appeal, simply request your FREE ‘Bottle for Change’ mineral water, from National Plughole Week co-ordinator Amy Bullard, on 01473 326403 or email amy.bullard@projectpr.biz     

National Plughole Week was established in 2007 and last year raised nearly £10,500 for Oxfam. It is hoped this figure will be quadrupled for 2010. As part of its fundraising Challs International donates 5p for every one of its Buster brand of plughole care products it sells during the National Plughole Week campaign.

For more information about National Plughole Week, visit www.nationalplugholeweek.com or www.twitter.com/PlugholeWeek

For more information about Suffolk Youth Games see www.suffolksport.com

For further press information, please contact:

Penny Arbuthnot or Amy Bullard, Project PR

Tel: 01473 326401

Email: penny.arbuthnot@projectpr.biz

Fun whatever the weather at Alton Water Run

10 May 2010: Rain and cold conditions failed to put a dampener on the annual Alton Water Run in Suffolk yesterday (10 May), when 550 runners took part in 2K and 10K runs, with hundreds more going along to cheer runners on.

The event was organised by parent volunteers from Tattingstone, Stutton and Holbrook Primary Schools with the support of Ipswich Jaffa Running Club and sponsorship from locally manufactured plughole care brand Buster, in association with National Plughole Week.

Buster brand manager Louise Perry said: “It was great to see so many people turn up to take part in such a great local event and we were delighted to be a sponsor. Alton Water Run proved a lovely opportunity to announce our Bottle for Change appeal and we donated over 2,000 bottles of water for runners and supporters.”

Laura Fawcett, Chair of the Alton Water Run Committee, said: “We had a record number of entries and the support we received locally from Buster and from our other sponsors was fantastic. It was a fun family occasion, despite the weather during the first part of the morning.”

 After drinking the water people are being urged to fill the Bottles for Change with spare 1p, 5p and 20p coins which will go towards helping Oxfam with their life saving work in the developing world.

 Further sponsorship of Alton Water Run was provided by Pioneer Pumps, Sweatshop, Royal Hospital School, Survey Solutions and Wild Raspberry. Anglian Water also gave their support.

 It is hoped that the final tally from fundraising will amount to more than £5,000 which will be divided between the three schools.

For more information and how you can get involved in National Plughole Week and Bottle for Change, please visit www.nationalplugholeweek.com

April 2010: National Plughole Week (10th-17th July) is urging everyone to turn their ‘small change into big change’ and raise up to £40,000 for Oxfam to help the 1.2 billion people worldwide who do not have access to clean, safe water.

Supported by Buster, the caring plughole brand, this year’s National Plughole Week (NPW) includes the launch of Bottle for Change, a campaign to encourage individuals, schools, clubs and organisations of all sizes, to save coins in specially branded water bottles as part of the fundraising activity.

Also on board as a major partner this year and providing additional fundraising support is Dyno-Rod, the drain and plumbing specialists.

Buster brand manager Louise Perry says: “Each day 5,000 children die due to unclean drinking water. National Plughole Week is supporting Oxfam in its work to put an end to inadequate water supplies and poor sanitation. With the help of our partners we hope this year’s campaign will be bigger and better than ever and we are urging individuals and organisations, no matter how big or small, to get involved. Your small change can help us make big change.”

A bottle filled with 1p coins (approx £4) is enough for Oxfam to provide life saving water filtration buckets for two families in the developing world.

If you would like to participate in the Bottle for Change appeal, simply request your FREE ‘Bottle for Change’ mineral water, from National Plughole Week co-ordinator Amy Bullard, on 01473 326403 or email amy.bullard@projectpr.biz     

Last year Buster raised more than £10,500 for Oxfam through National Plughole Week by donating five pence from every product sold and will be doing so again for this year’s campaign.

For more information visit www.nationalplugholeweek.com  or to make a contribution to the 2010 campaign please click on http://www.justgiving.com/plugholeweekwithoxfam.

July 2009 - Katie Price, Cristiano Ronaldo, Size Zero and WAGs – we hear about them on a daily basis and now the public have voted to ‘pull the plug’ on them once and for all!

In an online survey for National Plughole Week (20-27 July) glamour model Katie Price and former Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed top spot, beating off stiff competition from the likes of Kerry Katona and Jonathan Ross. There was a double whammy for Katie Price as she and former husband Peter Andre’s marital split was chosen as the news headline of 2009 that most people would like to pull the plug on.

Meanwhile the WAGS scooped top spot for most disliked group of people, narrowly beating MPs into second place by one vote!  Finally, ‘size zero’ was voted most disliked fashion trend, ahead of the dreaded comb-over!

National Plughole Week raises awareness of poor sanitation in developing countries and is supported by Buster, the caring brand of plughole cleaning products. Over £8,000 will be raised for Oxfam GB through 5 pence donations on every product sold in the campaign and the money will pay for water filters, rain water harvesting systems and essential hygiene kits.

Buster Brand Manager, Louise Perry, said: “In this country we tend to take sanitation for granted, but those in developing countries simply do not have that luxury. Buster is a caring brand and the donation to Oxfam GB for National Plughole Week will provide clean, safe water to help thousands of people who are not so fortunate.”

See www.nationalplugholeweek.com or  www.twitter.com/plugholeweek
Oxfam GB is a Registered Charity Number 202918.

Notes to editors:

1. Nearly 250 people voted in the online survey, which was powered by surveymonkey.com. The categories were established through a group on Facebook, where members were asked to suggest who or what they would like to pull the plug on.
2. Buster’s range of kitchen and bathroom drain unblocking and plughole cleaning treatments were tested independently against their brand name competitors under laboratory conditions at Intertek Research in July 2005.
3. Buster is the only range of plughole treatment products to tackle the individual needs of kitchens and bathrooms. It is the champion of the Draincare market and has grown 18% in 2008.
4. Priced at £3.29 (RRP) for 300gm, Buster is stocked in Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, Wilkinson, Tesco, Morrisons and independent hardware stores. Visit www.plugholesneedlovetoo.com
5. Oxfam GB - Registered Charity No: 202918 (England & Wales) and SCO 039042 (Scotland)
6. For over 60 years, Oxfam has been working with organisations around the world to find lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. Currently, we work in more than 70 countries – including the UK – and respond to an average of 30 emergency situations each year.
7. Oxfam’s work includes development, campaigning and advocacy at the highest level, lobbying international organisations and influencing governments. Because in a world rich in resources, there’s enough to go around. Poverty isn’t unfortunate, it’s unfair.

17 August 2009: Caring plughole experts Buster are delighted to announce that almost £10,500 has been raised for Oxfam GB, as a result of the activities undertaken during National Plughole Week (20-27^th July).

The money, which totalled £10,458, was raised through a five pence donation on every product sold during the campaign, with generous consumers adding to the total by making their own contributions on the justgiving.com website.

The money will be given to support Oxfam GB’s water and sanitation work, providing people in developing countries with items such as rainwater harvesting systems, filters and essential hygiene kits. These will enable them to access clean, safe drinking water. It is estimated the donation will help provide clean water to more than 14,000 people.

Louise Perry, Buster brand manager said of the donation; “We are absolutely thrilled with the final total, it exceeded all of our expectations. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the campaign, either through making a donation or by buying a bottle of the product. Buster is a caring brand and the donation to Oxfam will provide clean, safe water to help thousands of people who don’t have access to the luxuries that we take for granted."

Natalie Griffin in the corporate partnerships team at Oxfam GB added; “We are very grateful for the support shown by Buster and National Plughole Week. The money will help us to deliver essential clean water to some of the world’s poorest people.”

If you would like to make a contribution to the campaign, please visit www.justgiving.com/plugholeweekwithoxfam.

Alternatively, visit www.twitter.com/plugholeweek.
Oxfam GB is a Registered Charity Number 202918.

Notes to Editors

1. Priced at £3.29 (RRP) for 300gm, Buster is stocked in Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose, Wilkinson, Tesco, Morrisons and independent hardware stores. Visit www.plugholesneedlovetoo.com
2. Buster is the only brand of plughole unblockers and treatments to increase sales in 2008, recording a massive 18% growth in sales turnover (TNS) and increasing its shelf space in major retailers. It now dominates the Draincare category with 33% market share.
3. Buster Kitchen Plughole Unblocker works by blasting food and fat waste out of kitchen drains whilst Buster Bathroom Unblocker dissolves hair and soap blockages in showers and baths. Regular use stops build up. The two unblocking products are complemented by Buster Kitchen Sink and Plughole Treatment and Buster Bathroom Sink and Plughole Treatment, which, with individual formulas and fragrances, kill germs and odours, remove stains and leave sinks fresh.