Waterlogic Brand Guidelines: Mains-Fed Water Dispensers Since 1992, Now Part of Culligan

A dispenser plumbed into the building.

Waterlogic was founded in 1992. German Wikipedia says it was set up in the United Kingdom by Jeremy Ben-David, and a 2022 Culligan press release, carried by WaterWorld, describes him as the company’s founder and group chief executive. Castik Capital, which later invested in the business, also gives the United Kingdom as its home.

The idea behind the brand is the mains-fed dispenser: a cooler connected to the building’s water supply rather than topped with a large bottle. Waterlogic says it was one of the first companies to introduce mains-fed dispensers to customers around the world, and Castik describes it as one of the first companies to bring point-of-use systems to Europe.

Castik’s portfolio page explains how the business worked. Waterlogic mainly rented point-of-use dispensers to business customers, with servicing included, and it developed, produced and sold the machines itself; in markets where it had no direct presence, it sold them through dealers. The dispensers come as countertop and freestanding units that serve filtered water cold, warm, hot or sparkling, Castik says.

The company built a network of national subsidiaries as it grew. German Wikipedia says the German arm, Waterlogic GmbH, was founded in 2001 in Bietigheim-Bissingen. On manufacturing, the company says it owns its research, development and manufacturing in the United States and China, and German Wikipedia names a factory in Qingdao, China.

Firewall and the WL range.

The dispensers carry short model codes. Waterlogic’s current product pages list the WL2, WL3, WL7 and WL8 under the Firewall name, alongside higher-volume units such as the WL100 and WL1000. The company calls the WL7 its flagship, made in freestanding and countertop versions and offering cold, sparkling, ambient, hot and extra-hot water.

Firewall is the company’s name for its patented ultraviolet purification technology; the name appears in the model names of the main dispensers. Waterlogic also says many of its dispensers have key surfaces treated with BioCote, a third-party antimicrobial additive that it names on its product pages.

The range reaches beyond the office kitchen. Waterlogic’s sites group the products by setting, from offices, factories and warehouses to hospitals, restaurants, hotels, schools and public spaces, and the line-up includes bottle-filling stations, drinking fountains, instant boilers and high-volume dispensers. Bottled water coolers are offered too, for sites without a mains connection.

Some of the brand’s reach came from absorbing local names. Waterlogic’s UK website carries notices telling customers of two acquired suppliers, Cariad and Aqua Point, that those businesses are now Waterlogic. In Australia, the ACCC found that Waterlogic Australia and Culligan’s Zip business both supplied bottle-free coolers, wall-mounted boilers and bubblers, the Australian word for drinking fountains.

Acquisitions widened the offer further. Castik’s summary of the business says that, in selected markets, the range also took in taps, the Billi under-sink systems and the Purezza hospitality line, and that Waterlogic expanded into the under-sink category through acquisitions. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission noted in May 2022 that Waterlogic operated in Australia through the Waterlogic Australia and Billi brands.

Water in the workplace.

Water dispenser makers sell into rooms that most people pass through without noticing: the office kitchen, the staff room, the school corridor, the gym lobby and the hotel back-of-house. Their brands have to work for two audiences at once. One is the person who fills a glass or a bottle several times a day; the other is the facilities manager, architect or procurement team who chooses the equipment, signs a rental or service contract and answers for it afterwards.

The product types shape how these companies present themselves. A freestanding or countertop cooler fed from the mains is usually shown as a tidy appliance in a bright workspace, often next to a choice of still, sparkling, hot or chilled water. An under-sink system is a different kind of sell: the boiler, chiller and filter sit out of sight in the cabinet, so the visible part of the brand is a slim tap on the bench, and the photographs tend to concentrate on its finish and profile.

Bottle-filling stations and drinking fountains bring the category into schools, universities, gyms and public spaces, where the language turns to refills, durability and easy cleaning. Here the brand appears on a sturdy wall unit rather than a kitchen fitting, and the messaging is aimed as much at the people who maintain it as at the people who use it.

Much of the selling still happens in person, at facility-management, building and hospitality trade fairs, in showrooms and through dealer and distributor networks. Many of the names in this field have also changed hands through mergers and acquisitions, so a brand’s history often runs through several owners, and its identity has to stay recognisable across catalogues, service vans and installer manuals in many countries.

Private equity, then Culligan.

The modern shape of the company was set by private equity. Castik Capital says its funds took Waterlogic private in January 2015, together with founder Jeremy Ben-David; German Wikipedia says the deal was done through a newly formed company called Poseidon Bidco. Castik says Waterlogic carried out many add-on acquisitions in the years that followed and opened more than ten new direct markets. A significant minority stake was later sold to four institutional investors, British Columbia’s BCI, Neuberger Berman, StepStone and Skandia, and in May 2021 a new single-asset Castik fund took over the majority holding, according to Castik.

In 2022 Waterlogic agreed to combine with Culligan, the water treatment company founded in 1936 and based in Rosemont, Illinois. The press release, published by WaterWorld, said the combined company would be led by Culligan’s chief executive, with Ben-David becoming chief executive for Europe, the Middle East and Africa while continuing to run Waterlogic. Castik says Waterlogic’s shareholders became Culligan shareholders as part of the deal. The release added that funds managed by the merchant bank BDT Capital Partners, which had bought a majority interest in Culligan in July 2021, would remain the majority shareholder of the combined company with their co-investors.

Competition regulators asked for changes first. On 19 May 2022 the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it would not oppose the deal after accepting an undertaking to sell the Billi business, which competed with Culligan’s Zip taps; New Zealand cleared it on condition that Waterlogic’s New Zealand subsidiary, Merquip, be sold. Castik dates its exit to October 2022, and Waterlogic’s news pages carry the announcement that the combination was completed.

Today Waterlogic’s international website describes the company as now owned by Culligan, and its UK website carries a notice that the business is now Culligan (UK) Ltd. The Waterlogic name continues on the WL dispensers and on the international site aimed at distributors and business customers.

For a design guide, Waterlogic shows how a business-to-business brand can be carried by model codes and named technologies rather than by a mascot or a slogan. Compare Culligan, its owner since 2022, and Billi, the Melbourne tap maker it owned from 2018 to 2022. For this guide we use a deep blue, a teal and a pale mist with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Waterlogic’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.