A Yorkshire-based water hygiene firm has recently launched a new remote water monitoring service that is set to increase turnover by over 30% thanks to Help to Grow: Management.
Founded in 2003, Aquatrust specialises in water treatment, water hygiene, and the control of legionnaires’ disease via services including temperature checks, risk assessments, and closed systems analysis. It serves a variety of sectors including property, education, and healthcare.
Following an increase in demand for its services across the UK, the management team at Aquatrust decided to invest in technology that would allow them to offer an efficient, accurate and real-time way of monitoring the temperature of water systems remotely.
Previously, Aquatrust’s engineers would visit a customer site and carry out labour-intensive, manual tests to physically monitor water. For just one of Aquatrust’s thousands of clients, the team found that switching to remote water monitoring saved them on average 161,502 litres of water a year – which is around £1,615 a year in cost savings to the client.
Not only did the investment in this technology help to save water and reduce costs for clients, it also removed the need for Aquatrust’s engineers to physically travel to a customer’s site. This has helped to significantly reduce the firm’s carbon footprint and increase the team’s productivity as Aquatrust’s engineers are able to service more customers without expanding the team.
To develop and launch the new product to existing and prospective customers, sales director, Paul Kenny enrolled in the Help to Grow: Management Course, which is designed to help business leaders and their senior managers to increase resilience, innovation, and growth within their organisations.
Since Paul completed the course, Aquatrust has forecast its turnover to increase from £1.9m in 2022 to £2.5m this year, with ambitions to grow the business into a nationwide water treatment and water hygiene consultancy.
The course was delivered by Leeds Business School, which is part of Leeds Beckett University – a recipient of the Small Business Charter award that recognises institutions that support small businesses. It gave Paul the knowledge and confidence to digitally transform Aquatrust and future proof its service offering.
Paul Kenny, sales director at Aquatrust, said:
“The current economic landscape has forced businesses to look at how they can do things differently.
“Introducing our new remote monitoring technology has allowed us to not only digitally transform the business, but to eliminate the need for our engineers to travel miles every year to our customer sites across the UK, helping to reduce our carbon footprint and increase productivity while retaining current staffing levels.
“Aquatrust has grown from a single man in a van to a team of 40 with a national customer base, but to take us to the next level we needed to understand the end-to-end process of developing and launching a new product.
“The Help to Grow: Management Course has given me the confidence to develop and lead the go-to-market strategy for our new product but also to transform Aquatrust’s service model. Working alongside my mentor, I was able to create an innovative approach that differentiates Aquatrust from its competitors, securing the business’ future and facilitating significant further growth.”
Michael Hayman MBE, Chair, Small Business Charter, added:
“Helping to build innovative and resilient SMEs to future proof the UK economy is a core part of Help to Grow: Management’s ambition. To date we have supported more than 5,000 small business leaders, giving course participants the knowledge and confidence to create long-term business strategies, launch new products, and scale their teams. Business leaders must not overlook the value of investing in executive development and its potential to transform organisations by overcoming challenges, removing barriers to growth, and becoming more resilient.
“We’re excited to see Aquatrust launch its new product to market, and we look forward to seeing the business innovate further and take advantage of its growth opportunities.”
Business leaders can find out more about Help to Grow: Management and sign up for the course in their area by visiting: www.smallbusinesscharter.org/help-to-grow-management.
