Since getting a Scottish licence in 2012, the Warrington-based water company has won 150 business customers covering 2,000 sites, giving it the second largest market share to incumbent Business Stream. These retail and industrial customers generated £10 million of revenue last year.
Chief executive Steve Mogford said that experience placed the company “in a strong position” for the opening of the English water retail market to customers scheduled for 2017.
“What we are looking for is profitable business, not just market share,” he said. That means adding value with services such as multi-site billing and water audits as well as competing on price.
The group reported a 6 per cent rise in underlying operating profit to £641 million, bolstered by a regulated 4 per cent price rise and “tight cost control”.
United Utilities is reinvesting around £280 million of outperformance into projects to benefit consumers and the environment.
The water company is in “detailed dialogue” with Ofwat over its business plan for 2015-2020, ahead of submitting the final version by 27 June. The regulator is questioning £1.1 billion worth of planned expenditure on the wastewater side of the business.
Meanwhile, United Utilities has started spending around £40 million from the next investment cycle to smooth the transition for the supply chain.
The company highlighted that growth in average household bills would be below inflation between 2010 and 2020.
Mogford said: “Customer satisfaction continues to improve, underpinned by strong operational and environmental performance, and we believe there is scope to deliver further improvements. We are continuing to improve the quality, reliability and resilience of our assets and increased capital investment in our network to £836 million this year.”
United Utilities has been the subject of takeover rumours in the past month, with the LongRiver consortium tipped as a buyer. Mogford declined to comment on the speculation.