Tethys Water AG was founded by Christine Benguerel on the day of the blood moon, 27 July 2018, with the aim of making Tethys, the drink with natural sulfur iodine water from the hydrothermal deposit in Lavey-les-Bains (Switzerland) accessible to as many people as possible.
Portrait of the foundress and how the start up Tethys Water AG came about
It has taken over 10 years since the foundress’s first encounter with the thermal SPA of Lavey-les-Bains, Switzerland in 2007, until all permits and rights for Tethys had been obtained. Since the beginning of 2019, Tethys from the hydrothermal deposit of Lavey-les-Bains, Switzerland has been on the market as a foodstuff under the brand name “Tethys” and the technical name “Drink with natural sulfur iodine water”.
Active in nature conservation and environmental protection
The founder of Tethys Water AG became interested in environmental protection early on and biology was her favourite subject. At the age of 12, she gave lectures on the harmful effects of DDT, a pesticide that is now banned. She talked about the overexploitation of our planet and showed what can be done about it, as the Swedish activist Greta Thunberg does today. Unfortunately, at that time there was no social media to get her message across the world.
She absolutely wanted to marry a Native American and be brave, smart and courageous like the Apache Geronimo.
As a 17-year-old high school student, she was allowed to spend two months with traditional Navajos on Black Mesa, Arizona USA, during the school summer holidays. She rode an unshod horse through the semi-desert and participated in survival training for city Navajos. This was made possible by a meeting in Switzerland organized by the Swiss human rights organization Incomindios with a Navajo leader (that’s what he looks like today) and American war veteran, who invited her to his family in the Navajo reserve and made this unforgettable adventure possible for her.
Her dream job: doctor with “Médecins sans frontières”.
She dreamed of becoming a doctor with “Médecins sans frontières” (Doctors without Borders). After graduating from high school, she completed a hospital internship to study medicine. Before that, however, she wanted to discover and travel the world. She did that and then things turned out differently.
Expert for special trips, including to Yemen and China
After her studies in tourism she organized special trips all over the world and travelled a lot.
Entrepreneur in start-up fever
In 1995, at the age of 29, she founded her first company in the tourism industry, followed two years later by a second one in event marketing. The first was sold in 2008 to Kuoni Global Travel Services. More than 20 years after her first company was founded, the third followed in 2018 with the start-up company Tethys Water AG in the food and beverage sector.
The business idea: the basis for the foundation of the company
To revive a historical sulphurous water spring from the 19th century and to make a completely forgotten drinking cure safely available to people for the benefit of their health once more.
With this business idea, the founder of the start-up company Tethys Water AG applied to Venturelab (Training for Startups of the Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI), today InnoSuisse (Swiss Innovation Agency) of the Swiss Confederation for the course Ventureplan in 2011. It was accepted following an evaluation procedure. She has also completed the Venture training.
The discovery of Tethys and the development of a passion
She’s the mother of two children. Her younger child showed her the way to Tethys with her suffering. She could not and would not accept the diagnosis of a left-sided congenital hemiplegia (half-sided paralysis), caused by a stroke during pregnancy or birth with no prospect of healing. In her search for a therapeutic option for her child, she came across Tethys from the thermal SPA of Lavey-les-Bains in Switzerland in 2007.
Since then, she has been passionate about Tethys from the hydrothermal deposit in Lavey-les-Bains and the mineral salts from the sunken primordial ocean Tethys.
Since the beginning of 2019, Tethys from the hydrothermal deposit in Lavey-les-Bains, Switzerland has been available as food under the brand “Tethys” and the description “drink with natural sulfur water” for anyone who wants to do something good for his or her health and well-being.
