Since the bottom fell out of the UK markets in 2008, businesses of all sizes, in all sectors, have been falling like cards. Consumers and business clients no longer want to spend money unless it’s absolutely necessary †and when they do, they want to be spending it on a product or service that is flexible, reliable and reasonably priced. Water suppliers, like any other industry, are being hit hard †who wants to buy expensive bottled water when a tap may suffice? â€: versatile water suppliers, able to adapt readily to changing market demands, are surviving. Versatile water suppliers are those who have diversified their methods of water supply to encompass all forms of transport, containment and requirement. Rather than concentrating on office furniture (bottle loaded water coolers), versatile water suppliers are delivering tanker water; stockpiling emergency water supplies; and developing working relationships with local water suppliers to ensure rapid and cost-effective shipping to their clients. Water suppliers who build this kind of relationship have a key advantage over other players in their market. A significant portion of the price of water supply is accounted for by the storage and transport costs incurred by water suppliers when they hold everything in-house. If a water supplier has a client in, say, Devon, and is based in Hampshire, that client is going to be charged a fee commensurate with the costs of hauling it from Hampshire to Devon. The onsite storage of the water needs to be paid for (upkeep of storage facilities, wages for storage workers); the driver needs to be paid for; and of course the fuel used in the tanker needs paying for as well. Water suppliers, on the other hand, who maintain relationships with local water authorities, have dramatically reduced storage costs †the local authority is â€holding†the water, and the water supplier in question simply collects it when required. If water suppliers can build relationships with local water authorities in every area of the country, they effectively reduce their own need for storage to zero †wherever in the UK their client might be the water suppliers simply go to their nearest partner authority and pipe the stuff into their tankers. Water suppliers who maintain relationships with local water authorities also reduce transport costs, for the same reason. Even sending an empty tanker from a centralised point to pick up water near a client’s site, costs less than running a full one all the way up and down the M6. It is water suppliers thinking like this who will survive the economic downturn. Water, after all, is a commodity no-one can do without †but it is a commodity, and people feeling the pinch aren’t going to pay more than they have to for it. By streamlining the way their water is stored and carried, smart water suppliers can not only continue to function through the economic lean times, but flourish †and come out the other end with a loyal client base.
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