The Leicester-headquartered group said the five-year deal will see it support Water Plus’s multichannel customer communications strategy delivering paper bills, customer welcome packs and information, along with digital requirements including e-bills for the company’s online customer portals.
With more than 360,000 customers, Water Plus is the largest business water retailer in the UK. It provides customer service, meter reading and billing for water and wastewater services, along with advice on water efficiency, to public sector organisations and businesses of all sizes, across England and Scotland.
Opus Trust Communications sales and marketing director Richard Farmer described the deal as “a very significant win for Opus Trust”.
“Not least because Water Plus was an existing client who went to market to find a sole supplier for all of their business customers, which were split between two print suppliers,” he told Printweek.
“The tender process was very tough as it was a winner takes all opportunity, with an existing contract at stake for us and for our competitor.
“Opus Trust’s ability to integrate the additional work and take Water Plus on a digital transformation journey were key factors in awarding Opus Trust the sole contract.”
He added: “The full contract went live six months ago, but we have not publicised it until now as we concentrated on the integration of additional work streams associated with the contract at the same time as our office teams adapting to working from home as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was quite a challenge, but we went live on time and on budget.”
The company will use BlueCrest IntelliJet 20 printers and Epic enclosing lines to produce the print element of the Water Plus work. It has successfully integrated the additional business at its Leicester site without the need for additional staff requirement.
Water Plus operations director Jill Thorpe said: “Partnering with Opus Trust is part of our continuous business development, identifying areas where we can improve and enhance our service and processes for our customers further."
Opus Trust has also recently won a new three-year contract with online retailer Freemans Grattan Holdings (FGH), which went live in November.
It is just over a year since the company acquired print and mailing business Critiqom. It followed that in summer 2020 with the takeover of customer communications management specialist DocCentrics.
The business also invested £4m into its internal IT functions last year, and became the first UK company to join Quadient’s ‘Digital Now’ programme.
It currently employs 187 people across its three sites with a combined turnover of £44m.
