Pennon mulls merger of retail businesses after first profitable year

Pennon Water Services has recorded a profit before tax of £1 million, its first since the non-domestic retail market opened in 2017, its parent company reported in its full year results for 2021/22.

Pennon, which includes South West, Bristol and Bournemouth water companies, said it would consider the benefits of merging or combining its non-household retail business with that of Bristol, which became part of the Pennon group last year.

Susan Davy, group chief executive said of Pennon Water Services and Bristol-held Water2Business: “We’ve got two great performing retailers and as part of plans going forward we will want to understand if there are any benefits of bringing those together.”

Paul Boote, chief financial officer for the group told Utility Week it had been a “very good year” for Pennon Water Services.

“It’s the first time we’ve recorded profit before tax in Pennon Water Services since the market opened in 2017. Since that time the business has been growing following a strategy focused on large sustainable businesses, which has seen us well through the pandemic because it is those types of companies that have been able to weather the storm and come out strongly the other end.”

He said demand has begun to return to pre-Covid levels of activity, which has produced growth in the revenue that is now coming through to the bottom line.

Over the year, the retailer won £19 million of new contracts including Essar Oil and Bourne Leisure as well as renewing contracts with GSK and Rolls Royce.

Water2Business is a joint venture between Bristol Water and Wessex Water. Its sales for the year June 2021 to March 2022 were £16.7 million and is yet to report its full-year results.

Through the acquisition, Pennon gained a 30% share in the retailer that serves 160,000 customers and has a c.6% market share – matching Pennon Water Services’ own market share.