WRC A Troubled History
WRC is an independent, international research and consulting organization with more than 70 years' experience. The company has built its reputation in the water, waste and environmental fields by understanding customer needs and providing bespoke solutions that are both proactive and innovative.
WRC utilizes a wide base of skills and experience to provide a range of integrated solutions for the processing, distribution and collection of water and wastewater. These capabilities are complimented by river catchment management, contaminated land, hydrogeological and waste management expertise. WRc has an unparalleled record of advising regulators, Governments and regulated operators in relation to technical and strategic problems.
In the 1989 Water Act, the UK government privatized the entire water industry into ten, large water service companies. These companies provide water and wastewater services to almost 50 million people or 95% of the population. The WRc Group was also formed by the Water Act in 1989 when a number of smaller public research centers, laboratories and testing stations into one organization, the Water Research Center. The individual components of the Group provided WRc with a wealth of human capital – over 650 professional environmental scientists, engineers, chemists, modelers, policy advisers and economists.
The privatization also left the new Group with some significant challenges. The company found itself extremely short of cash and with limited liquidity. The wealth of intellectual or human capital represented an enormous fixed cost burden to the company. In the ten years since privatization, 1989 to 1999, the company’s turnover has reduced by 43% from 35 million to 20 million and the professional staff has reduced 54%, from 650 to 300. The company’s operating profit of 1.6 million in 1989 has gradually declined to a 0.2 million loss in 1999.