The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Massive expansion for young Blairgowrie firm
Castle Water sees workforce soar from just two to 375 in five years
Blairgowrie in Perthshire is well known for its connections to the soft fruit growing industry, but the town is also home to a fast-growing venture in a completely different business sector.
Castle Water, which describes itself as the UK’s leading independent business water supplier, started trading just over five years ago.
The firm now provides water and wastewater services to hundreds of thousands of businesses, charities and public bodies on both sides of the border.
Founder and chief executive John Reynolds began the company with just two staff – there are now 375 around the UK.
Most employees are based at the company’s head office in Blairgowrie, with others at its regional offices in Ayr, Leeds, Portsmouth and London.
John said the majority of Castle Water’s customer services activity is conducted from its customer service centre in Blairgowrie.
He added: “Our friendly, experienced and knowledgeable customer services team is available to help customers with every aspect of their business water service.
“Customers can also self-serve 24-7 via the Castle Water website and customer portal to satisfy a range of queries – including paying bills, setting up a direct debit, requesting a copy invoice, submitting a meter read and informing us when they are moving premises.”
John said Castle Water had experienced significant growth over the past five years and continues to grow and evolve at pace.
He went on: “The company is in a strong financial position to continue expansion in the UK business water market, with the capacity to invest and deliver great service with a better deal for business customers.
“Combining independence with scale and financial resilience, we can offer an assured service for all sizes of customer.
“We have the scale to provide services to major national groups, but genuine independence from any wholesaler – 10% of energy suppliers have failed, and utility customers need to be confident in the financial strength of their suppliers.
“With more five-star Trustpilot ratings than all other retailers combined, more organisations across the UK are switching to Castle Water for their business water supplies.”
John said there was a focus at his company on delivering excellent customer service.
“Our recipe for success is working out what our customers want, to give them what they need and not to accept anything less.
“We answered 338,886 calls in the 12 months to March 31, 2019, with an average waiting time of 33 seconds – 92% of calls were answered in under two minutes.
“In March 2019, we carried out a test, calling nine retailers daily over a two-week period.
“Our call waiting times were the lowest of any of the retailers.”
The company’s significant success to date was recognised when it was presented with three top honours at last year’s Courier Business Awards.