International drive pays off for Scottish Water arm

SCOTTISH Water’s international arm has generated more than £8 million of turnover, in total, since it was established in 2012, the utility has announced.

In the past year, the Scottish Water subsidiary has worked on contracts in Canada, Ireland, Australia, Norway and Qatar.

Scottish Water, which is 100 per cent-owned by the Scottish Government, noted that its international arm had recorded revenues of £1.8m in the year to March, and recorded operating profit of more than £200,000.

It added that, since being formed in 2012, the international arm had generated £8.08m of turnover and worked on projects that had seen 70 Scottish Water employees involved in overseas assignments.

Scottish Water International offers advice and expertise to overseas utilities and governments, and other international clients.

Ken Hutchison, managing director of Scottish Water International (SWI), said: “The success of Scottish Water is testament to how our knowledge and expertise is in demand. It harnesses our experience of transforming water services here in Scotland – we are now one of the UK’s top-performing water companies, a far cry from when Scottish Water was established in 2002.

“At the same time, it helps promote Scotland and the Scottish water industry and engineering expertise around the world.”

The international arm recently completed its second major assignment in the Canadian city of Calgary. Scottish Water said its five-strong team of core consultants had made recommendations that could save the Canadian city up to £15m annually.

Mr Hutchison said: “Thanks to the work of SWI, Scottish Water is being seen as a global leader in water and waste-water services and it further emphasises Scotland’s overall brand reputation for best practice across vital industries.”