| Type | Public company |
|---|---|
| Traded as | LSE: SVT |
| Industry | Utility |
| Founded | 1974 |
| Headquarters | Coventry, England |
| Key people | Andrew Duff, Chairman Tony Wray, CEO |
| Revenue | £1,642.2 million (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | £557.1 million (2010)[1] |
| Net income | £251.5 million (2010)[1] |
| Employees | 8,768 (2009) |
| Website | www.severntrent.com |
Severn Trent plc (LSE: SVT) is a British public utility. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Severn Trent is a group of companies employing more than 15,000 people across the UK, US and mainland Europe, with some involvement in the Middle East.
The main companies in the group are Severn Trent Water and Severn Trent Services. Severn Trent Laboratories was rebranded as part of Severn Trent Services in 2010 in order to better streamline the company to give a single worldwide image, rather than a series of separate organisations with different identities.
It is regulated under the Water Industry Act 1991.
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The Company was established in 1974 as the Severn Trent Water Authority, one of the ten water authorities in England formed under the Water Act 1973, to supply fresh water and treat sewage for around 8 million people living in the Midlands of England and also certain regions of Wales.[2] It took its name from the two major rivers in this area, the Severn and the Trent.[2] It was privatised in 1989[2] and in 1991 it went on to acquire Biffa, a leading waste management business.[2]
In October 2006 Biffa was demerged from the Severn Trent group and is now listed separately on the Stock Exchange.[3] In January 2007 the American side of Severn Trent Laboratories was sold to HIG Capital.[4] In September 2007 the company announced they would be closing their headquarters in Birmingham and relocating to a custom built office complex in the centre of Coventry in autumn 2010.[5][6]
The water authority took over the following public sector water supply utilities:[7]
It did not take over the following water supply companies, but became the sewerage authority for the companies' areas. The companies continued to supply water as before:
It also took over two river authorities, responsible for control of water pollution:
The company supplies about 3.7m households and businesses in its area.[8]
Severn Trent Water has a call centre in Coventry dealing with operational emergencies and billing enquiries, and two other call centres in Derby and Shrewsbury which deal solely with billing enquiries. Its head office is the new custom built Severn Trent Centre in Coventry.
During 2010 the company announces plans to close offices in Leicester, Nottingham, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent.
Like other water companies in England, Severn Trent Water is regulated by OFWAT, the Water Services Regulation Authority.
In July 2008, Ofwat confirmed that it had fined Severn Trent Water £35.8 million for deliberately providing false information to Ofwat and for delivering poor service to its customers.[9]
In 2008 the Company was fined £2m (reduced from a previous judgement of £4m) for poor information reporting and covering up misleading leakage data.[10]
The company operates a number of reservoirs, many of which are accessible for recreational use. These include:
Biffa plc (formerly a subsidiary of Severn Trent which was demerged)
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