Former Brita GmbH Executive Joins bobble to Run New European Subsidiary

NEW YORK, May 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Move Collective LLC, the company behind the wonderfully successful bobble portable filtration products and more recently the fast filtering and serving bobble jug, are pleased to announce a major step in their global expansion.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120516/NY08215LOGO )

The company has appointed Marcel Gueissaz, as Managing Director for bobble Europe. Marcel has completed a Master Business Administration degree from the Simon Graduate School of Business, University of Rochester in 2003. He worked as a consultant and in different sales positions with hands-on experience with the major retailers in Europe and the US. Prior to joining bobble he was on the Executive Board and built up the international private label business of Brita GmbH, the major player in the water filtration industry.

Richard Smiedt, Move Collective co-founder and CEO announced this appointment by saying, "Bringing on board a respected industry professional with deep retail relationships in our core category from such a well-regarded competitor is a hugely exciting step for us. Our business is growing enormously and directly controlling retail partnerships with key decision makers in Europe as we do in the USA is a logical next step, and already in under three weeks the results are beyond our wildest expectation."

Marcel added, "bobble is a brand that has had two incredible years of growth and is very well regarded by the global retail audience. We lead the on-the-go filtration segment as the innovation and design leader in the category. Our recent introduction of the bobble jug put us squarely up against the market leaders and I so look forward to this challenge. Move Collective has a great business model and their open, uncomplicated, refreshing way of doing business alongside brilliant product development is being wonderfully received by customers."

A Hamburg-based distribution hub is well underway to service customers directly and the Swiss office will manage administration and sales relationships both with the existing distributor network and new major retail accounts.

bobbles new headquarters for Europe is located in Switzerland – bobble (Europe) GmbH, Rathausstrasse 7, 6340 Baar – www.waterbobble.com.

About bobble:
bobble is a sleek reusable, patented water bottle that filters as you drink, providing instant sustainable filtration. bobble was created by Move Collective, LLC, of New York City. Move Collective set out to give consumers an ecological alternative to single-serve plastic water bottles. It enlisted renowned industrial designer Karim Rashid to fashion bobbles beautiful iconic shape. bobble comes in multiple sizes and features a replaceable, recyclable carbon filter that removes chlorine and organic contaminants from municipal tap water, yielding a cleaner, crisper taste. Since bobble was introduced in February 2010 it has been an outstanding success with over 3 billion media impressions thus far. It is now sold in nearly three dozen countries and more than 40,000 stores worldwide. bobble has received rave reviews from customers and global retailers. It has won numerous industry awards including a Green Good Design Award 2010/2011, gold Edison Award 2011, a Red Dot Award 2011, an American Graphic Design Award, a Good Design 2010 Award, a Spark! Award, iF Packaging Award, Ambiente 2011 Award, Die Line Packaging Award, Great Idea Award 2011 (Latin American award) and three Pentawards. bobble is available through www.waterbobble.com and through retailers globally. bobble has just launched the bobble jug, which filters fast and can be taken to the table, further reinventing the filtered pitcher business.

SOURCE Move Collective LLC