The winner of the #ZitkoH2O bottle competition is HERE!

After a near year-long competition, the winner of the #ZitkoH2O bottle competition is HERE! We gave out over 1000 bottles last year into the hands of our candidates, clients, and of course the many visitors that came to our event stands at the likes of The Security Event and Security Twenty 22. With that, our bottles found themselves into some interesting places – delivery rooms, sunny beaches, backstage at the theatre, and even outside a Heineken factory. But it wasn’t just our network who took our bottles on their travels. Our consultant Chris Kendall’s bottle certainly earnt the most flight miles this year, making its way to and from the office here in Cambridgeshire down to the South coast, and then off to Gibraltar, Belfast, Crete, and Egypt! Our bottles also joined our US team on their trip to Las Vegas, and even on a few annual leave trips to the likes of the Maldives, Greece, and Budapest.

There could only be one winner, and for 2022 that winner was Justin Thompson from Reliance High-Tech! His entry, from all the way up in the Andes (Peru), fought off his stiff competition making him our Zitko H2O champion and the recipient of the £1000 prize.

It all started with the onset of an ‘amazing competition’ – Justin’s words, not ours. Once the team at Reliance High-Tech received their bottles, a natural degree of competition ensued and of course, Justin had to beat his colleagues (namely, Pierre). To do this, Justin got his thinking cap on and passed a bottle along to his friend Craig who was part of a group soon to be heading up the Andes in Peru. Of course, Craig obliged.

After nearly 12 hours on a plane and a 10+ hour bus ride in the blistering heat along rocky cliff edges, the team were well on their way to the top of the mountain. It didn’t stop there though. The journey to the top spot takes travelling up and over another mountain before you even reach the correct base camp – a 4-day climb! But of course, this challenge was no match for the climbing team as they made their way, finally reach their goal and the location of the #ZitkoH2O winning shot.

Upon receipt of his winnings, Justin decided to split the money - part went to the climbers who made it all happen, and the other to a local wildlife project through the committee that he chairs in Skelton. The aims of this project are to restore a swampy pond back to its former glory, beautifying the area and supporting local flora and fauna so it can once again flourish. Projects like this require a lot of time and maintenance, and so we are pleased that we could support Justin on his journey to restore this area for him and his community.

Our Founder George wanted to make a statement about Justin and his win from Zitko H2O:

“I’m so pleased for Justin. Not only because we’ve worked together across a range of our products and solutions for both him and the wider Reliance business for a long time, but also because his picture was just seriously cool. When everyone at Zitko saw it, we knew instantly it would be tough for anyone to beat! It’s great the money has been used for such a worthwhile cause, and something that means so much to Justin and his community personally.”

When the team made a visit to see Justin and present him with his cheque, he had a few words to say about his experience working with Zitko:

“Zitko is a very professional organisation, full of hardworking, collaborative people. I think it's ran by a very, very good guy in George, and from an outsider looking in it looks like it has really, really special team spirit. I love all the employee of the month kind of thing. I think that's great. Emily has always been excellent with me. We’ve worked together now it must be five, six years, maybe longer, but a really professional outfit and great to work with.”