Learn how Wave Utilities’ efficient, cost-cutting water management solutions are transforming UK businesses
Despite the challenges currently facing the utility sector, award-winning water retailer Wave Utilities is making a huge impact in the industry, providing reliable, articulated water plans and efficient solutions to businesses all over the country.
The company works with over 300,000 businesses across the United Kingdom, from small businesses to larger corporations, helping them reduce their water usage, cut costs and increase efficiency. It offers the full scope of water retail services, including meter readings, billing and account maintenance, and even pipe/leakage repair, all delivered by its dedicated, UK-based customer service team.
On top of all that, Wave Utilities strives to influence the wider market through its wealth of expertise, thought leadership and advocacy for sustainable water management. The senior leadership team stays ahead of the curve by frequently attending industry groups and forums, such as the Strategic Panel and Metering Committee.
At the helm is Wave Utilities’ Chief Executive Officer, Lucy Darch, who pioneered the company’s unique water management solutions following some significant changes to the industry. “The non-household water market deregulated in April 2017, which meant that businesses, charities, and public sector organizations were no longer tied to a single regional provider for their water services,” Lucy explains. “Anglian Water and Northumbrian Water formed a joint venture called Wave. When Wave opened, it serviced all the businesses in Anglian Water’s and Northumbrian Water’s regions and was able to compete in England and Scotland for new business.”
The merging of these two pre-established businesses meant that Wave Utilities was born with a booming customer base that was quickly expanding. This major upscale imposed immediate challenges for Wave Utilities to gain traction and compete with the current, fast-paced market.
“Starting a business with around 300,000 customers on day one meant we had scale right from the very start!” Lucy explains. “Both shareholders recognized that, to succeed in the new market, there was a benefit to having bigger scale.
“In order to scale up, significant investments were needed in new IT architecture, offices and people. Having more customers meant that we could work to optimize our cost to serve and compete effectively in the new market. We learnt a lot as the market developed and optimized our systems and processes for our customers.”
Wave Utilities’ wide range of services cater to businesses of all kinds across various industries, including the commercial, industrial and public sectors. Clients can manage utilities online, download bills, submit meter reads and monitor their water consumption. Should their water usage increase, the team at Wave can identify issues and support customers to make adjustments to improve overall water efficiency – a win for both the environment and the accounts.
“For small businesses, we aim to get an accurate meter reading every six months, provide accurate bills and make it easy to deal with us, across all our communication channels, should any issues arise,” Lucy adds. “If we see any change in the pattern of consumption, specifically an increase, we send a high consumption alert via email to prompt the customer to check that they haven’t got any leaks in their premises. We offer services to help all customers find and fix their leaks quickly too.
“Larger customers with high consumption are allocated an account manager,” Lucy continues. “They review the customer accounts, meter read history and bills to make sure everything is on track, discuss the customers’ objectives and build a plan together to achieve them – this might include smart metering, water audits, reviewing infrastructure and looking at alternative supplies such as non-potable water. Some premises require resilience plans to ensure that they never have reduced water pressure or an outage. Through our wide range of water efficiency services, we’re able to offer customers assistance across all these areas and more.”
Through Wave Utilities’ high level of expertise, large scope of capabilities and tailored, bespoke solutions, it has already been able to exceed its target revenue, despite only having been established seven years ago. Having been founded with an existing customer base, Wave is especially unique in the way it has been able to gain traction in the market and undergo immense growth. Lucy describes the factors that have attributed to Wave’s rapid expansion and continuing success.
“Being cost-effective and able to compete favourably with our competitors will always be a factor,” she explains. “But at Wave, our focus is always on delivering the best service, accurate bills, and acting as a partner to our customers to help them to achieve their objectives such as lower consumption, lower bills and no leaks. By focusing on the development of our people, we aim to provide a high level of knowledge to support our customers with whatever queries they may have and get them resolved quickly and easily.” 
Recently, Wave Utilities has been proud to announce its public sector contract won with the UK Ministry of Justice via the CCS Water Framework. “The contract commenced in January 2024 and the annual spend is around £28m,” Lucy shares. “Alongside the usual focus on metering, billing and service credentials, the Ministry of Justice also valued Wave’s focus on social value via its Social and Sustainability Promise which helps to contribute value to our local communities.”
As well as hosting events for local communities – the most recent being a volunteering day at Tardebigge Lock Flight in Birmingham – Wave Utilities is also making significant changes to its online portal, focusing specifically on data quality, automation and digitization, to improve customer experience.
Turning to the future, Lucy reflects on her journey as a woman in the utilities industry. “I’ve worked in the utilities market since 1995 and whilst it is a male dominated industry there is certainly a place for women to improve the balance of skills and opinions,” she deliberates. “At Wave, we have a good balance with the leadership team being 50 percent female and 50 percent male. This isn’t typical of utilities businesses but here it has worked very successfully.
“I believe it’s about role modelling and mentoring to help women see that the opportunities are there for them to go for.”
In following, it’s clear to see that Lucy is a role model in the field as she leads Wave through current industrial and economic turbulations and into the future. With the recent introduction of a new government in the UK, the utilities sector can expect to see some changes.
“Believe it or not, potable water is a very scarce resource,” Lucy concludes. “As time goes on, we expect to see much more focus on water efficiency as prices rise and water scarcity gets onto peoples’ agendas.
“Wave is keen to see smart meters being deployed, a stronger focus on water efficiency, water scarcity and protecting the environment. Businesses account for around 30 percent of water usage in the UK and therefore it is essential that they are engaged with this agenda and play their part.”