Landlord buys pub 'while at rock bottom' finds himself sitting on a liquid goldmine

Tim Scott speaks to landlord Dornan Binder, who owns the Crag Spring Water.

A landlord who took on a pub and expected a huge bill to sort out the water supply found he was sitting on a 'liquid goldmine'.

Doran Binder, 49, bought the Crag Inn, near Macclesfield in 2016 after divorcing his wife and at 'rock bottom' at the time.

Not long after taking on the small country pub he had to get the water tested as part of the annual inspection to make sure it was safe for the public to drink.

He was worried about the cost as inspectors had to dig deep, but he learned that the aquifer that runs 27 metres below the pub had some of the purest water in the world.

And with 700,000 litres of it, which is enough to fill more than a million bottles a day - Doran has found himself sitting on liquid gold.

Doran has now been approached by a boutique US drinks manufacturer that sells high-end mineral water to wealthy clients for up to £109 a bottle. But the environmentalist turned them down, instead opting to run his own eco-friendly and small scale operation from his old pub facilities.

He is now regularly receiving calls from India, China, the US and further afield from companies looking to import his water.

The dad-of-five said he was working for Bumble and bumble - a US hair products brand, and living between the US and UK when he decided to buy the country pub.

He said "We were living 900 metres away on a farm, and we got divorced. I thought if I bought the pub I could be close to the kids. I knew the pub was failing, but I thought I'd just buy it and see what happened.

Doran has set about turning the pub into a bottle processing plant. He uses only glass bottles, which are washed and refilled when they are returned.

His company, Crag Spring Water, now employs 12 people who operate out of the pub's old dining room. The pub is now closed and the water business is now Doran's main focus.