Focussing on water as results announced

Severn Trent Water announced its annual results to the City today and took the opportunity to unveil  20 key objectives(1) in its drive to push customer service and operating performance to new improved levels.

Severn Trent Water’s managing director, Tony Wray, explained:  “We are absolutely determined to raise our performance when responding to fundamental issues such as leakage, sewer flooding, written customer complaints and water quality.

“Having reshaped the business to focus purely on water quality and sewage treatment, we must now build on the many improvements already achieved to ensure we deliver a first class service as often as possible.”

This ambition was further cemented by the announcement that the Tony Wray will carry on the work initiated by Colin Matthews when their two roles are consolidated later in the year.  Tony will take up the role as Chief Executive when Colin retires from the company towards the end of this year. 

With turnover up 1.7 per cent to £1480.2m and profit before interest & tax (PBIT) up 3.1 per cent to £405.3m, the new water-focussed business believes it is well placed to meet the expectations of customers, employees, shareholders and regulators during the years ahead.
Tony concluded: “There is still a vast amount of work to do, especially with leakage.  As the final pieces of data are verified, it looks likely we will miss the annual leakage target set by OFWAT for 2006/07.  However, the marked reduction in monthly leakage levels over the first part of this year means we are back on track and we are determined to make sure that all the extra time, effort and dedication shown by our leakage teams, is reflected in the next reported results.”

ends...

Notes to Editors:  Pictures of Colin Matthews or Tony Wray available upon request.

Tony Wray joined the board in March 2005, prior to that he was Director of Networks at Eircom, the Republic of Ireland’s telephone operator.  He joined British Gas in 1983 and held various managerial positions before becoming Head of Asset Management.  In 2000 Tony moved to Transco, first as Director of Asset Management, then as National Operations Director, before being appointed to implement the merger integration of Lattice (Transco) and National Grid Group into National Grid Transco.

(1)   20 Key Performance Indicators are:   Lost time per 100,000 hrs worked Employee motivation Water quality Customer written complaints First time call resolution Unplanned interruptions Properties at risk of low pressure First time job resolution Performance against regulatory obligations Capex vs. final determination

Capital process quality Debtor days Opex vs. final determination Cost to serve per property Pollution incidents Sewer flooding incidents Sewage treatment works – breach of consents Raw water storage Net energy use Leakage

For further information: Contact Kate Cox in Marketing - External Communications on 0121-722 4380 or kate.cox@severntrent.co.uk.  Out of hours, please call our 24-hour operations centre on 0845 6020659, through which a spokesperson can be contacted.