Jersey Water profit up by almost 6%

• Company’s 2014 profit up almost six per cent on 2013.
• Increase mainly due to ‘improved operating performance and lower finance costs’.
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JERSEY Water made a £4.6 million profit last year – a rise of almost six per cent on 2013.

• Dating back to 1882, The Jersey New Waterworks Company Limited is the oldest established company in Jersey.
• It was set up following the demise of its predecessor, The Jersey Waterworks Company Limited – hence the ‘New’ in the Company name.
• One small well in the St. Lawrence was the source of the first mains water ever made available to Islanders.
• The company’s main offices are in St Helier and it operates from 20 sites across the Island.
• The company collects untreated or ‘Raw’ water, stores it, treats it and then distributes it.
• Helier Smith is Jersey Water’s Chief Operating Officer. He was appointed to the Board as finance director in October 2003 after joining the company in 2002. Mr Helier was previously employed by KPMG in the UK and Jersey where he worked for eleven years in the manufacturing, distribution and finance sectors. Mr Smith qualified as a chartered director in 2010. He became a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute in 2012.

The company reported the profit as it published its preliminary results for 2014.

It said that the increase was mainly due to ‘improved operating performance and lower finance costs’.

The announcement comes after Jersey Water saw its best ever water quality results last year, with overall compliance with regulations standing at 99.99 per cent.

Meanwhile, the company said that a warm summer and new customers meant that demand for water was 0.5 per cent higher last year than in 2013.

Overall, turnover was up by 1.8 per cent last year and operating costs were less than planned.

Jersey Water’s board is now proposing a final equity dividend of 13p per share, bringing the total dividend for 2014 to 19.555p, an increase of 3.2 per cent on 2013.

In total £2.9 million was spent on the Island’s water infrastructure in 2014, which is consistent with 2013.

The company laid 3.5 km of replacement water mains, 1.6 km of new water mains and fitted 2,800 new water meters. There were 403 new connections to the network during the year.

Jersey Water’s chief operating officer, Helier Smith, said: ‘In addition to delivering a good set of financial results, water quality was the highest it has ever been, leakage reduced by six per cent and is now among the lowest in the British Isles, and we extended metering to 83 per of connections.’

He added that, looking ahead, 2015 will be a busy year for Jersey Water .

Jersey Water will publish its full financial statements next month.

They will be sent to all shareholders and will be available from the company’s website.

• Profit before tax was £4,575,000 (2013: £4,318,000).

• Operating profit £4,971,000 (2013: 4,800,000).

• Investment in infrastructure in 2014 – £2.9 million (2013: 2.9 million).

• 2,800 meters installed (83 per cent of connections now metered).

• Total water supplied was 7,080 million litres, an increase of 0.5 per cent on 2013.

• Water quality compliance in 2014 was 99.99% per cent (2013: 99.84 per cent).

• Tariffs for 2015 increased by 1.75 per cent, below the rate of inflation and the 13th consecutive increase that has been at or below inflation.

• Jersey Water is the trading name of The Jersey New Waterworks Company Limited.

• Of the 9,660,000 equity shares of Jersey Water in issue, 73.9 per cent are owned by the States of Jersey. The balance of shares is owned by Companies and individuals.