JOHN Lewis has become the first high street retailer to provide its own water as Ofwat grants the store chain self-supply water and sewerage licences.
As self-supply licensee, John Lewis will now be able to:
- Pay wholesale prices – without a retail margin added by suppliers in the open water market
- Become a market participant including membership of MOSL with voting rights and the ability to directly influence the market
- Be able to supply water services to all English sites of its associated companies
When John Lewis applied for the licences in August 2019, the company described self-supply as a further innovation that would allow it to drive a change in process, influencing its water strategy and targets, as well as offering it a customer voice in the market.
The store chain has partnered up with Waterscan, which takes on the role and responsibilities for the retail functions including meter reading, wholesaler management and finding further water efficiency savings.
“We are extremely confident that self-supply will influence [John Lewis’s] ability to meet its targets and give it an all-important customer voice in the water marketplace – a first for the retail sector”, Neil Pendle, Managing director at Waterscan, said when the permit was applied to in August.
“We look forward to helping John Lewis set a new benchmark when it comes to water efficiency in retailing.”
