Edinburgh's Business Stream seals one of largest contracts since opening of English water market

Edinburgh-based Business Stream has sealed one of its largest contracts since the English retail water market opened to competition.

The three-year contract with Ancala Water Services, which was awarded following a “highly competitive” tendering process, is worth more than £45 million.

The agreement will support the £1 billion, 25-year Aquatrine contract in which Ancala Water Services delivers water, waste-water, fire system maintenance and specialist estate management services to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) across England and Wales.

Business Stream will work in partnership with Ancala to supply water and waste-water services to more than 650 sites across the West Midlands and the south west of England.

The three-year Business Stream contract with Ancala Water Services was awarded following a 'highly competitive' tendering process.

The Scottish non-domestic water market opened up to competition in 2008, while the English retail water market opened in 2017.

Douglas McLaren, chief operating officer, Business Stream, said: “We have a vast amount of experience in working with the private and public sectors and a proven track record in delivering financial and environmental savings to our customers. We’re now looking forward to working in partnership with Ancala Water Services to support improvements across their business.”

Business Stream is the largest operator in the Scottish non-domestic water market. Headquartered in Edinburgh, it also has a presence in Worthing and Bradford, and employs some 380 people.

The firm said Ancala Water Services would benefit from a partnership designed to deliver “improved accuracy, consolidated billing services and greater efficiencies across its estate”.

The deployment of automatic meter readers across key sites will improve awareness of overall water use and help to identify further savings, it added.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription: www.scotsman.com/subscriptions