Water engineer returns to manage flood of work
Water specialist Wyatts has appointed its first water services manager to help manage its growing workload as increasing numbers of businesses and households seek to avoid paying higher mains charges.
For the successful recruit, Peter Chapman, it has been a case of coming home – because he began his career at Wyatts 36 years ago as a 16-year-old apprentice.
Peter Chapman, 52, joined Wyatts, in Whitchurch, Shropshire, in 1976 as an apprentice engineer while studying mechanical engineering at Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology.
After nine years, he left to carve out a successful career as a contracts manager with companies like Southern Water, Anglian Water, Scottish Water, Welsh Water, United Utilities and Severn Trent.
Wyatts Technical Director Rob Piggot said: “We’ve seen a 30 per cent increase in our client numbers in five years. The types of businesses, such as agriculture, schools, universities, industry and sports facilities, and the people seeking our expertise have broadened significantly.
“A great deal of this is due to the near doubling of the price of mains water over the same period. Combined with ongoing concerns about drought, businesses are looking for new ways to ensure cost-effective continuity of supply.
“In recent months, we realised we needed an experienced engineer who could manage this growing workload.
“As we work in such a niche market, it is not always easy to find someone who will gel into our company quickly – with Peter, we were lucky enough to have someone who knows exactly how we work.”
Peter Chapman, who lives with his family in Whitchurch, said: “There have been some big changes in 30 years. Our water treatment services have been expanding fast.
“As has our consultancy work on gaining abstraction licences from the Environment Agency, which now requires a great deal more of the specialist knowledge we can offer.
“However, many of the customers I was looking after as a teenager are still with Wyatts which is a credit to the expertise and service they deliver. It’s been fascinating to look through the archive of works ledgers and see my name against clients from three decades ago that I am now re-visiting today.”
Rob Piggot added: “Peter and I shared our apprenticeships at Wyatts at the same time, which is hugely beneficial as we will be working very closely together.
“We also have the added advantage of Peter’s work across different organisations and the huge amount of experience this brings and of course lessons that we can all learn from and help continue take the company forward.”
Wyatt Bros Ltd, based in Whitchurch are specialists in water well drilling, water treatment and water engineering.
