Retail performance

We provide business customers with information on water retail service providers' performance, including customer complaints. We collect this information from customer complaints made directly to providers and those reported to us.

How we measure performance

We use two complaint sources to gain insight into the performance of companies;

complaints received directly by retailers; and
complaints raised directly to CCW about companies.

To make sure complaints are fair for all retailers, we use something called a Supply Point ID (SPID). The measure we use to do this is ‘complaints per 10,000 supply points’. For example:

Total complaints: 600
Total supply points: 4,000,000
Complaints per 10,000 supply points = 600/4,000,000 x 10,000 = 1.5

How we compare performance

We recognise that for smaller retailers, each complaint can make performance appear disproportionately poor. We categorise retailers based upon their size in the following way;

smaller retailers – less than 5,000 supply points; and
larger retailers – more than 5,000 supply points.

Around 99% of the sector is served by larger retailers and complaints to smaller retailers are very low by comparison, totalling just 15 complaints to CCW and 45 complaints to retailers in 2025-26. We consider larger retailers separately from smaller providers, using the median and quartiles as our preferred measures across this group. Analysis of smaller providers is largely explained through commentary and analysis.

We measure performance by complaints per 10,000 SPIDs and colour code them as follows:

How we measure
Good
Better than median*
At or worse than median*
Poor

*Median – a mid-point of the data set, or a middle value in the list of numbers that are arranged by highest to lowest.

This performance data is based on unaudited in-year data and should be treated as indicative. Figures may be revised following data quality reviews and the annual audit process.

Larger retailer’s performance in 2026-27 (April 2026 to June 2026)

Company	Number of SPIDs	Total complaints per 10,000 SPIDs	Complaints to CCW per 10,000 SPIDs
Business Stream	393103	16.79	2.09
Castle Water	426121	30.53	5.42
Clear Business Water	22948	64.49	4.79
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water**	195768	17.27	0.41
Everflow	203418	18.68	1.72
Pozitive Water Limited	17490	15.44	0.00
Hafren Dyfrdwy**	8822	4.53	2.27
SES Business Water	32861	46.56	9.13
Source for Business	150897	6.03	1.52
Water Plus	688860	22.23	2.08
Water2Business	185859	15.50	0.38
Wave	388437	10.17	1.78

**Only business customers in Wales who use 50 megalitres of water per year are allowed to access the retail market and choose their water retailer. The above numbers for Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water and Hafren Dyfrdwy relates to the total number of SPIDs and not just those in the open retail market. The majority of business customers in Wales continue to receive retail services from Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water or Hafren Dyfrdwy.

Small retailers’ performance in 2026-27 (April 2026 to June 2026)

We’re unable to colour code small retailers’ performance due to small number of complaints.

Company	Number of SPIDs	Complaints to retailer	Complaints to CCW
Advanced Demand Side Management (ADSM)	4,801	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.00	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.00
ConservAqua	4,521	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.00	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.00
The Water Retail Company	2,530	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.0	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.0
Smarta Water	2,095	Total complaints: 3 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 14.32	Total complaints: 4 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 19.09
Veolia Retail	770	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.0	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.0
Yu Water	903	Total complaints: 5 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 55.37	Total complaints: 1 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 11.07
Mitie	170	N/A*	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.00
Waterscan	2,805	N/A*	Total complaints: 0 Complaints per 10,000 supply points: 0.00

*Quarter one data is not available at the time of publication. These retailers are new market entrants and had not yet submitted complaints data to CCW. They will be included in future publications once data is received

Complaint trend

Below, you’ll find graphs that track how retailer complaint trends changed over time. One graph shows complaints received by retailers per 10,000 supply points, while the other illustrates complaints reported directly to CCW per 10,000 supply points.

We can’t show complaint trends for small retailers, because we received very few complaints from them.