Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second largest supermarket, has applied to Ofwat for a water supply licence and a sewerage licence, with a retail authorisation limited to self-supply.
The multi-brand, multi-channel retailer has a growing online and digital business, delivery capability and a store estate of over 1,400 Sainsbury’s supermarkets and convenience stores, and almost 900 Argos stores in stand-alone and supermarket locations.
The holding company, Sainsbury’s, includes Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd (including superstores and convenience stores), Sainsbury's Bank, Argos, Tu, Habitat, Sainsbury’s Home and Nectar.
The move marks a change in the company’s approach to the water retail sector. Initially, Sainsbury’s took advantage of the competitive market and selected two water retailers to cover their English portfolio of sites.
The synopsis of the business plan published by Ofwat says:
"Sainsbury’s has now decided to apply for a self-supply licence, which it considers will offer further opportunities for innovation in delivering its water strategies in the future....
“It considers that this will help inform its water targets, whilst also giving them a customer voice in the market and the ability to drive change and innovation through this licence. “
Sainsbury’s is also hoping to gain better insight and control of its data.
Sainsbury’s is partnering with Waterscan, as the managing agent. Waterscan will assume responsibilities for retail functions, such as meter reading, Central Market Operating System transactions, wholesaler management, and identifying further water efficiency savings opportunities.
The arrangement extends a long-standing partnership between Sainsbury’s and Waterscan which has previously resulted in the delivery of key targets such as a 50% reduction in consumption and several stores achieving ‘triple zero’ status (achieving zero waste to landfill, zero impact on water usage of local catchment area and zero carbon emissions from operational energy used).
As a self-supply licensee, Sainsbury’s will:
- Pay wholesale prices
- Become a market participant
- Become involved in innovation within the water market
- Be able to supply water services to and communicate with all English sites
Deadline to make representations or objections to Ofwat about Sainsbury’s application is 1st April 2020 – click here to download the application notice published by Ofwat
Sulzer has launched a new global Center of Excellence (CoE) for Water Treatment Solutions - the CoE consolidates Sulzer’s wastewater treatment expertise in a unified and global manner.
“SAS (Surplus Activated Sludge) is a bit weird and 
Owen Mace has taken over as Director of the British Plastics Federation (BPF) Plastic Pipes Group on the retirement of Caroline Ayres. He was previously Standards and Technical Manager for the group.
PureTec Separations, the Ledbury-based water treatment engineering firm, has appointed Dan Norman as its new Sales Manager – Water Process Systems, supporting the company’s continued growth in the UK and international markets.
Hear how Scottish Water has completed its £235 million Ayrshire Glasgow Resilience Project - customers across Greater Glasgow, Ayrshire and East Renfrewshire will now benefit from a more secure and resilient water supply.
Hear how United Utilities is accelerating its investment to reduce spills from storm overflows across the Northwest.
Find out more about the remarkable career opportunities on offer at WSP - scroll down to watch the inspirational video.