Ofwat has granted Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second largest supermarket, water supply and sewerage licences, with a retail authorisation limited to self-supply.
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
The retailer has 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 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.
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