Many commentators have predicted that low margin for retailers in the English business water market will limit the amount of direct savings switching retailer will yield for customers.
— edie explains: water retail competition —
However, Waterscan managing director Neil Pendle said at Water UK’s City Conference last week that he was “pleasantly surprised” by the reasonable savings the consultancy has seen.
“We ran a tender for Sainsbury’s, which will be announced very shortly, and the sort of savings they’ve got are much more than we’d expected – and as Waterscan, we were quite optimistic,” he said in a panel debate.
Pendle also said he believed there is a “service revolution” coming in retail, but this will not arrive on the first day of the market. “We’ve got to realise there is a lot of work to be done in the retail service offering, particularly around the billing and the data.”
Water Plus chief executive Sue Amies-King was also on the panel. She said the success of the market should not necessarily be judged on the level of customer switching, because a lot of customers will take the opportunity to renegotiate what they have.
She said high levels of awareness would be a better measure, as well as innovation, efficiency measures and the arrival of disruptive new entrants.
Pendle disagreed. He suggested switching was a good metric – in the short-term, at least. He said he would like to see 10 or 20 per cent of the market switch in the first year. He agreed with Amies-King that water efficiency would be a “far bigger piece” than switching or saving.