The Client
Brewers is a family owned and national chain of decorators’ merchants, with over 200 stores stretching the length of the UK, and with a head office facility in Eastbourne. The estate is a mix of modern purpose-built warehouses, older warehouse stock, retail stores and office facilities, and has a combination of electricity, gas, and oil for heating.
Over the past few years, the business has undergone an ambitious programme of acquiring new sites, modernising, and moving premises, and bringing new meters and supply contracts into the portfolio.
The Challenge
When Brewers originally contracted with IMServ they were looking for someone to help them better understand the energy usage across the multiple sites, as well as providing the flexibility to update their meter stock over time. A key criterion for selection was ensuring that the company could help Brewers understand the complex nature of energy metering so that the business could take better control of their costs. Getting accurate and timely access to the meter data was critical – estimated readings from NHH (Non-Half Hourly) or non-communicating meters meant that it was difficult to manage billing – and accuracy was low. When energy costs were such a significant part of the business this was not acceptable.
IMServ – delivering data accuracy
As the industry experts, IMServ’s role is to help customers understand the changing face of energy – and ensure that the metering estate across their varied portfolio is up to date and performing as needed. Understanding industry change is a critical part of that – because as the industry moves through the energy transition, ensuring that meters meet the any new requirements is vital.
As the business has grown and brought more properties into their portfolio, they have also needed to bring additional meters across to IMServ and undergo a process of understanding which metering technology is installed and what needs to be updated to meet new requirements.
Onboarding new sites is a straightforward process with IMServ, with the expert team collecting the right information upfront to ensure a seamless take of the new infrastructure.
Getting site specific information is also vital for budgeting with each premise managing their own profit and loss account. Having accurate site metering data means the business can pinpoint any issues with energy leakage or excess spend quickly and put in place the right correction measures.
Helping to meet sustainability goals and reporting requirements
Not only does Brewers have to meet statutory sustainability reporting requirements such as ESOS and Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR), but they are also voluntary members of PlanetMark, demonstrating how vital having strong sustainability goals is to a business like theirs. Getting accurate data from their meters across the estate in a timely way is critical to meet the reporting requirements across all their sustainability led commitments.
Nick Brewer, Director from Brewers said “The length of our relationship with IMServ speaks volumes of the way we work together. They’ve been instrumental in building our knowledge of the critical role that meter data plays at the core of our business – helping us with our financial planning and budgeting and giving us the information we need to deliver on our sustainability goals.
It would have been nigh on impossible to get the data we needed without IMServ and their proactive approach to ensuring our meters are all working correctly to deliver the right data at the right time.
All the people we’ve worked with over the 13 years we’ve been with IMServ have all really known their stuff – and their knowledge and expertise has helped me to gain a far deeper understanding of the world of energy metering! I really feel that IMServ understands our business and our priorities and help us to deliver on them.”