New water provider ‘Brightwater’ set up to target Scottish SMEs

A new, authorised water provider – Brightwater Services – has been set up to target small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland.

The East Lothian-based company is the brainchild of Scottish entrepreneur Roger Green and digital expert Rich Rankin.

Brightwater plans to fill a niche in the SME sector, specifically targeting independent businesses in sectors such as retail, services, tourism and hospitality and professional services.

Since deregulation in 2008, when the non-domestic water market in Scotland was valued at £350 million, the focus by most other licensed providers operating in Scotland has been on switching large users where the biggest gains are to be made, said the company.

Instead, Brightwater plans to fill a niche in the SME sector, specifically targeting independent businesses in sectors such as retail, services, tourism and hospitality and professional services.

The company’s business model is based on delivering cost savings of more than £1 million to its customers in its first three years through competitive pricing, while also reducing their overall combined water use by 287 million litres, equating to a further saving of up to £644,000.

The company has devised a ’10 per cent test’, a water efficiency questionnaire to benchmark current usage and aimed at helping and encouraging businesses to use 10 per cent less water.

Brightwater took a sample of 24,875 business premises in Scotland, each of which had an estimated annual spend between £400 and £10,000 on their water services. Some 98.1 per cent of all the businesses they analysed could save 20 per cent on the Industry’s Default Standard Tariff by switching.

Rich Rankin, managing director of Brightwater, said: “Our research has shown that there is a marked lack of awareness of deregulation in this sector. Many business owners don’t think about switching water suppliers, despite the fact that switching your photocopier, phone or broadband supplier is more common.

“For small businesses in particular, where owners are juggling many different jobs, they may simply not have the time to consider switching and how it might save them money while improving their environmental performance by saving water.

“This is where we can help. Our experience in working with small businesses gives us an in-depth appreciation of the challenges they face and we have developed a simple and quick ‘ten percent test’ that will help identify where they could save water.”

A version of this article first appeared on wwtonline