- Best ever year in sales with a 10% uplift in new contract wins
- Three new appointments to the Board
- 26% increase in turnover
- 50% increase in people
- 26% increase in contracted connections
Manchester-basedLeep Utilities(Leep) has reported its most successful year since inception 16 years ago.
The UK leading owner and operator oflast-mile utility networkshas enjoyed a 10% uplift in new contract wins, a 26% increase in contracted connections and an 26% increase in turnovercompared to its previous financial year.
During this time, Leep has also reached the key milestone of securing over 100,000 contracted multi-utility connections to homes and major businesses across the UK.
It’s also recently enjoyed a record-breaking month of energisations, when nine high profile projects went live. These includeArt’otel London Battersea Power Station,Plot A1 at Canada Water, theAxe Streetlandmark regeneration project in Barking andGallions Quarter, near Royal Albert Dock, London.
A number of high-profile senior level appointments have also been made to the Leep team, over the last 12 months – including Lee Kitchen as Chief Financial Officer, Helen Bishop as Director of Customer Operations and Brian Loft as Director of Operations.
And, during this time, Leep has also started to roll-out new-generation automatic meters across its water networks. This enables the company to obtain live consumption data, so that its customers can better manage their water usage. This not only helps them to save money through reduced bills, but it helps them to protect the environment too.
Such performance and innovation marks substantive change from the company’s beginnings in 2017, when Leep Utilities had an asset base of 2,000 connections within the Peel Group-only development portfolio and a team of ten working out of a small, serviced office in Media City.
It’s at this point that independent investment managerAncalaacquired an initial 50%of the company, in a joint venture with Peel Group.
In 2019, Ancala took an additional 40% share of the business, taking its total interest to 90%. During the same year,Leep acquired SSE Water, which put it firmly on the map within the independent water connections (“NAV”) market – becoming one of the UK’s leading players overnight.
Five years on, to 2022, and Leep now employs more than 100 people, working across multiple functions and from two offices – the company’s Salford headquarters as well as its Southern base in Reading, Berkshire.
Leep continues to maintain the highest health and safety standards – as overseen by Ofgem and Ofwat – with no lost time injuries recorded for the fifth consecutive year, last financial year.
Tim Power, Director at Ancala Partners and Chairman of Leep Utilities, said: “Whilst we celebrate what has been a great year of growth, we’re very much looking to the future and the many opportunities open to us in terms of UK electric, water and, in particular, heat network connections.
“With the financial backing of Ancala, Leep has enjoyed a significant increase in scale and capabilities. Now, with the new team, company structure and offering in place, we’re in an incredibly strong position to realise what is a very ambitious growth strategy.
“We’re now working within a wider market, to offer all UK developers, contractors and consultants a flexible last-mile utility solution for new residential, commercial and mixed-use developments – whether that’s to adopt electricity, water or heating networks, or a combination of them all. We’re obviously very excited about what our future holds.”
Louise Manfredi, CEO of Leep Utilities, said: “We began our journey as a small subsidiary of the Peel Group, but since Ancala took a stake in our business, there’s been a significant step change in our scale, operations and performance – all of which have been clearly demonstrated by what we achieved last year.
“When Ancala invested in the business, our priority was to build out the team – with a particular focus on business development and operations so that we could establish ourselves as a real force in the wider UK independent connections market. This is exactly what we’ve done and its thanks to our talented, passionate and expert colleagues that we’re now winning connections business from some of the biggest UK developers – and are recognised as a well-respected market leader.
“Last year was our best yet, and we’re looking to the new one being even better.”
For more information visithttps://www.leeputilities.co.uk/.
