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Ben McGannan, the Founder and Managing Director of Wellbeing People, grew up in the family business (established in 1976) which manufactured bottling equipment.
In 1989 (as main contractor to Perrier UK) the family engineering business produced the first bottling line in the UK, to wash, fill and cap the large containers that sit on top of a water cooler; this was the birth of the water cooler industry in the UK.
By 1992, Ben had set up Water for Work Ltd, as a trading division of the family business. Over 27 years, Ben developed the company through organic growth, joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions to become the largest independently owned water cooler company in the UK.
In 2006, Ben initiated the move into wellbeing, developing an engagement model built around the Interactive Health Kiosk. The main aim of the business being to empower individuals to live a better healthier life.
Building a team that was dedicated to achieving its goals, Wellbeing People grew to become a successful division of its parent company Water Wellbeing Ltd, delivering wellbeing programmes to businesses and communities throughout the UK and Europe.
Wellbeing People was able to develop steadily within the larger water business but ultimately needed to break away to provide a more dedicated focus and investment in growth. On 12th August 2019, Water Wellbeing Ltd and its hydration operations were bought by the Culligan Group, which enabled the timely separation of Wellbeing People to take place.
The entire assets and business were hived off into a new company, Wellbeing People Ltd, and it has subsequently expanded its team, carried out an extensive office restructure, the installation of more efficient operating systems and the opening of a new office in London.
After the separation, Wellbeing People Ltd was free to move forward with its new direction, and in September 2019, the company acquired DayOne Wellness with its owner Pip Lawrence, joining the Board of Directors. DayOne Wellness brought additional wellbeing concepts to the business, including their signature programme, Recalibrate Wellbeing® that empowers individuals to take personal responsibility for their mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing.
Pip’s career started as a personal trainer for Virgin Active, where she quickly became frustrated with the unsustainable nature of the industry, not only for her but also for her clients and personal trainer peers. Aged 20, she invested in a fitness franchise which she successfully built and later sold to fund 18 months of travelling.
On returning to the UK, Pip was employed to work on a Public Health initiative commissioned under MyTime Active to address the child and adult weight management problems facing the London borough of Camden. During this time, Pip combined her fitness, travelling and Public Health experience and identified a huge gap in the market – a proactive approach to wellbeing that could prevent the need for emergency health care, whilst building a stronger foundation for mental, physical and emotional fitness.
Having travelled extensively and being exposed to other cultures, Pip realised that modern society and the pace of technology had over complicated the three things that the happiest and healthiest communities did naturally; they ate a rainbow of natural food, rather than packaged foods, they completed natural movement, rather than being sedentary, and they created safe spaces for natural connection.
In 2014, Pip founded DayOne Wellness with a mission to simplify wellbeing for individuals whilst providing new sustainable job opportunities for wellbeing coaches. In 2017, Ben went through the Recalibrate Wellbeing® Programme, having heard great things about how it was transforming people’s lives, and found it so life-changing that he immediately started discussions with Pip to bring about the merger of the two companies upon the sale of Water Wellbeing Ltd.
The enhanced Wellbeing People operations, wellbeing programmes and products’ aim is to bring positive transformation and energy to the wellbeing of individuals, businesses and communities, delivering wellbeing programmes and initiatives that not only work, but last.
