Statement re Contract
Spice Holdings PLC
13 October 2004
Spice Holdings Plc
Contract Extension for Meter-U
The Board of Spice Holding plc ('Spice' or the 'Company'), the provider of
outsourced support services primarily to the UK electricity, telecoms and water
sectors, is pleased to announce that its meter reading division, Meter-U, has
reached agreement with Siemens, its principal customer, to provide meter reading
services in the East of England.
The extension to the existing meter reading contract with Siemens follows
Meter-U's success in the East Midlands area of the country. Meter-U has
recruited approximately 120 franchisees to service an area which includes the
outskirts of London, and most of East Anglia. The contract extension will
initially run to March 2006 and is expected to comprise around 5.5 million meter
readings per annum with an annual turnover in the region of £2.5m.
The Board of Spice is also pleased to announce that Meter-U has been invited by
Siemens to conduct a pilot gas meter reading scheme. This new venture will see
18 franchisees reading gas meters in the Barnet area of London, and if
successful could lead to further opportunities in this sector.
...Ends...
For further information, please contact:
Spice Holdings plc Tel: 0113 384 3838
Simon Rigby, Chief Executive Officer
Carl Chambers, Chief Financial Officer
Rawlings Financial PR Limited Tel: 01756 770376
Catriona Valentine
NOTES TO EDITORS
Spice is a support services business operating predominantly in the utilities
sector. The Group's operations were founded in 1996 and have their origins in
the electricity industry, though the range of activities has since been expanded
into the water sector, niche telecommunications services and the public sector.
Spice's businesses have a common theme of delivering and coordinating basic
infrastructure services to customers (typically in regulated industries),
although the technological element within the product mix has been built up
significantly over the course of the last three years.
Meter U
Meter U, a subsidiary company of Spice, provides utility meter reading services
for domestic, industrial and commercial properties and is now responsible for
collecting approximately 7 million meter readings annually. Meter U offers
franchises in meter reading to provide an efficient, low-cost outsourcing
service that allows clients to concentrate on the processing and aggregation of
the data. The working model aims to deliver 'goal congruence' - if the
franchisees are successful so is the client and Meter U. Meter U won its first
major contract with East Midlands Electricity in December 2000, and now has
close to 200 franchisees performing meter reading visits. Meter U's principal
customer is now Siemens Energy Services Limited (part of the Siemens group),
which acquired the metering business of East Midlands Electricity in 2001,
though other customers include Electricity Supply Board, an electricity supplier
based in the Republic of Ireland. According to independent research based on a
worldwide sample of other meter reading operations, the Meter U model has been
demonstrated to produce meter readings at a cost thirty per cent. below the
sample average. A predominantly franchised operation, Meter U is located in
Nottingham.
This information is provided by RNS
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