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Exiting the non-household water retail market will make competing in the household market – if and when it opens – easier, Thames Water has insisted.
Thames chief financial officer Stuart Siddall told Utility Week that quitting non-household “will make it easier” to compete in the household market, because the staff would be “more focussed” and the household billing system would be simpler.
“The household customers are very regionally-focussed, and we’ve got a very strong regional brand, and in 2017 we will have a new customer relationship and billing system. We are absolutely committed to that market,” he said.
The water firm is spending more than £70 million to install a new billing system and customer relationship management system. Quitting the non-household market will enable it to focus on its household customers, Siddall added.
“The question people are asking is ‘if you leave non-household, are you any less committed to household?’ The answer is ‘it absolutely does not’. We are absolutely committed to our household business.”
The non-household market is more complex than the household market, as there is a broader range of tariffs and needs, he said.
Thames announced mid last month that it would exit the business retail market and pass its customers on to Scottish supplier Castle Water.
Castle Water’s business development director Richard Moore told Utility Week the deal was “too large to ignore”.
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