schuh, the high street footwear group, has switched its water retail account for its 15 Scottish branches and Livingston headquarters to Thames Water Commercial Services Limited (TWCS).

The Scottish retail giant is now set to slash annual overheads by around £62,000 - courtesy of a change in water supplier and the identification of the contribution of a small burn.

As a result is of the switch to TWCS schuh is set to make £20-22,000 savings a year.  In addition, its 245,000 square foot Bathgate distribution hub has slashed its projected wastewater bills by around £40,000 per year, after the TWCS team identified that run off drainage was flowing into a local burn, rather than into the sewer network where it would incur business charges.

 Colin Temple, Managing Director at schuh, said:

“When we set out to switch supplier we were looking primarily to reduce our like-for-like bills. However, the team at TWCS has been very proactive in offering further services that save us time and money and quite simply go beyond what is expected."

 “The extra attention to detail was evident at our Bathgate warehouse, where the knowledge and expertise of the TWCS team in spotting the significance of the burn quite literally unearthed new savings that would otherwise have gone completely unnoticed.”

Previously, the facilities team at schuh had been faced with individual bills at every individual property in Scotland; however they will now receive a single consolidated bill as part of the TWCS service, saving valuable time, helping reduce transactional costs and removing hassle

 Alan Munro, who heads up TWCS Scottish team, said:

“This is quite an incredible story, in that we have been able to help schuh reduce their property drainage charges significantly simply through identifying that rainwater being discharged from the roofs  of the property was actually being discharged into a nearby burn and not into Scottish Water sewer network. Although this situation is not too common, it is something all businesses should be aware as property drainage charges can potentially make up a significant part of any business customers water bill.”

“Savings made through identifying that the water was being discharged into the burn, on top of the savings through switching to TWCS, has significantly helped to cut costs for the Scottish retail institution.”

“It belies a more important message: firms must look to suppliers that are capable of delivering services that go beyond simple cost-cutting and in doing so take advantage of the great opportunities that Scotland’s trailblazing open water market offers.” 

Since 2008 - the first time in the world that a retail market was opened to competition - around 130,000 non-household customers in Scotland have been able to choose who can supply their water and wastewater services.

The sector is still led by Scottish Water subsidiary Business Stream, the default supplier following market deregulation. According to TWCS, this is simply because many businesses remain unaware of the potential cost saving and other benefits of moving to another supplier.

 Operating in Scotland for three years, TWCS  said it is continuing to attract many leading Scottish businesses from across a wide range of sectors including banking, finance, hotels, leisure, commercial, education and retail sectors.

The company has been based in Edinburgh but has moved to Linlithgow to allow it to work from a central Scotland base to service its customers and growth ambitions.