VALUE OF IBWA MEMBERSHIP BOB GELBACH PRESIDENT NATIONAL TESTING LABORATORIES, LTD. CLEVELAND | OHIO ALL ABOUT BOB Bob does a lot based on trust and integrity. When not working, he likes to play golf. Bob also loves to spend time with his family, including his two grandchildren who are three and six.
Three words pretty much sum up Bob Gelbach’s take on why he values his company’s IBWA membership: friendship, business, and ideas. As he says, “you can never have too many friends to sit down with and bounce ideas off of.” Bob is president and founder of Foxboro Capital Ltd., an operating holding company founded in 1995. National Testing Laboratories Ltd. (NTL), which is a wholly owned subsidiary, has been a member of IBWA since 1991. “It’s been a really good run. You get access to information, access to prominent people in the industry, and access to a voice that is bigger than oneself,” he says. But most importantly, he adds, “If your company ever gets in trouble, you won’t find a better value than IBWA membership because you really don’t know how much you need IBWA until you need it.” Bob was a public accountant before his mergers and acquisitions work led to the creation of NTL in 1985, when an individual with a concept to analyze drinking water was looking for capital. Thirty years later, NTL is still independently owned and its only focus is strictly to analyze drinking water. “We give people an easy and effective way of knowing what’s in their water,” says Bob. The company—which has the tagline “Why guess? Test.”—tests water for the bottled water industry, food industry, municipal water systems, and consumers. Summing up his work with bottlers, Bob says, “We help bottled water companies protect their brand.” NTL’s success stems from its extensive knowledge of drinking water regulations, strong relationships with regulators, and commitment to superior customer service. According to Bob, during the 24 years that NTL has been an IBWA member, the company has had the opportunity to meet very important people in the bottled water industry. The interaction is personal as well as professional: “The people we’ve gotten to know are not only fun to talk to about the industry, but to talk to about business in general. You know, how they handle their issues and complexities about any topic: bottled water, getting business, dealing with employees. Or they ask you if you’ve ever run across something, and you share your experience of how you dealt with it. Sometimes you find common ground and sometimes you find new ground.”
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