A landlord who took on a pub and expected a huge bill to sort out itswater supply found he was sitting on a 'liquid goldmine'.
Doran Binder, 49, bought The Crag Inn in Wildboarclough, Cheshire, in 2016 when he was at 'rock bottom' because of his divorce.
Not long after taking on the small country pub near Macclesfield he had to get the water tested as part of an annual inspection to make sure it was safe for the public to drink.
But despite fearing he was going to end up having to dig deep, the outcome couldn't have been more different.
Doran soon learned that the aquifer which runs 27 metres below the pub flowed with some of the purest water in the world.
And with 700,000 litres of it - enough to fill more than a million bottles a day - he found himself sitting on 'liquid gold'.
Doran has now been approached by a boutique US drinks manufacturer that sells high-end mineral water to rich clients for up to $150 (£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.
Doran Binder, 49, (above) bought a failing pub, The Crag Inn, Cheshire, in 2016 when he was at 'rock bottom' because of his divorce and soon discovered he was sat atop a 'liquid goldmine'
Sitting at the crest of Shutlingsloe Hill in Wildboarclough, Cheshire, there are more than 700,000 litres of available water which could sell for upwards of £109 a bottle
The father-of-five was working for Bumble and bumble, a hair care products brand in New York, and living between the US and the UK when family circumstances prompted him to buy the pub.
Doran said: 'I knew the pub was failing, but I thought I'd just buy it and see what happened.
'At the time I was working in New York and quite happy. I bought this, I'm commuting two weeks here, two weeks there, I've got a great little life.
'I thought: "I'll run it for a year, see how it goes and then make a decision about what we do with the pub."
'Because it's a pub we have to undergo annual testing to make sure the water is safe for public consumption.
