Derbyshire-based installer Tony Parker of Parmet Heating in Stanton by Dale, recently stopped off when passing leading pump manufacturer Wilo UK’s headquarters in Burton-on-Trent to pick up a rather nice little prize.

 

Tony was one of hundreds of installers across the UK that had entered Wilo’s competition to find the oldest working Wilo small circulator pump on a central heating system, a competition run over nine months in conjunction with a major awareness campaign to highlight the recent growth of the company in  the domestic marketplace, where it manufactures more than 5 million small circulators a year and has more pumps in combi boilers across Europe than any other pump manufacturer.

 

Tony found a Wilo pump that was still operating after more than 32 years in the home of an elderly customer in Stapleford in Nottingham.  As required by the rules of the competition, he had taken a photo of it, insitu, taken the relevant numbers from the casing and sent the information to Wilo. The company was able to check the information and confirm the pump had been manufactured in 1977 and that it was indeed the oldest operating small circulator found during the competition – meaning Tony was the proud winner of a brand new, fully decaled VW Caddy van.

“I was amazed to hear I’d won the van because I have a reputation for never winning anything,” said a delighted Tony Parker. “I’ve been installing Wilo pumps for years and have always been happy with them from an installation, reliability and cost  point of view. The one I discovered is older than any I’d seen before so I thought it might be worth entering the competition for a laugh. Winning a van is anything but a laugh. It’s a major plus for the business this year and I’m really pleased I bothered to enter!”

 

“From research we’ve undertaken, it’s clear that many installers and specifiers had no idea that we invented the first small circulator pump and that we are the leading supplier of small circulators to combi boiler manufacturers across Europe,” says Wilo MD Gary Mannus. “We manufacture more than 5 million small circulators a year in Europe and there are more than 3.5 million Wilo pumps operating either in combis, system boilers or independently in conventional heating systems in the UK. The numbers are phenomenal. It’s all good news and we need to get the message out and about to those who think there’s only one brand of pump in the UK – there’s a second – and its taking chunks of the marketplace year on year, as we grow, year on year.”