Friday 1 September 2017
The owner of brands such as Premier Inn, Costa Coffee and Beefeater has become the first hospitality multinational to be granted a self-supply licence in the new water market.
With the opening of the retail water market earlier this year, eligible organisations can now self-supply and manage their own water retail services, such as meter readings.
Whitbread said the self-supply licence will help drive cost and consumption control in the next phase of its water management strategy.
John Russell, Ofwat Senior Director of Strategy, Planning and Policy added: “For a large, multi-site business like Whitbread, opting to become a self-supplier offers a range of benefits such as reducing administration costs, cutting out the margin that goes to others in the supply chain and having more control over the service they get.”
A recent survey by Consumer Council for Water revealed more than half of micro, small and medium sized businesses are still unaware of the new retail water market in England.