Industry pours 8% of turnover down the drain

UK food manufacturers spend almost £5.5bn -- or nearly 8% of the industry's annual turnover -- on water and getting rid of it, according to a new...

UK food manufacturers spend almost £5.5bn -- or nearly 8% of the industry's annual turnover -- on water and getting rid of it, according to a new study.

Despite moves by many companies to cut back on rising water bills and trade effluent charges, they typically spend 3.65% of turnover on water and a further 4.25% on getting rid of waste water and effluent, claimed a study for the water industry exhibition IWEX 2005.

Nevertheless, more than a third of businesses claimed that their water use had decreased in the last three years and more than two thirds develop their wastewater strategies in-house, showing how seriously the food sector takes water use compared with other sectors, which often outsource the role to third parties.

The government-funded programme Envirowise said food manufacturers should be able to reduce water bills by 20-30% through monitoring, repairing leaks, using sprays or jets for washing, fitting triggers on hosepipes, fitting pressure reducing valves and recycling water.

Envirowise consultant Richard Barnard said: "One cubic metre of water can cost between 48p and £1.27, depending on what part of the country you are in. That's pretty expensive.

"Typically, 1% of site turnover can be saved if water costs are addressed."

Some companies had only discovered that they had been paying neighbours' water bills for years when they started monitoring their water use, he added, while brewer JW Lees had saved £100,000 a year in water bills after installing meters for consumption and effluent discharge.

IWEX 2005 is held at the NEC, Birmingham, from October 18-20.