Saur unveils a transformation project for its water services branch in France to strengthen its competitiveness and accelerate its growth

Saur Group presented to all its employees a transformation project of its Water Services activities in France in order to implement the strategic roadmap announced in July 2020. This project involves changing the company's organization to achieve its objectives by strengthening its competitiveness and accelerating its growth. The company's ambition is to build a model of shared value creation, capable of boosting its social and environmental performance around a common mission: standing for water.

In July 2020, Saur group announced a strategic roadmap, fully supported by its partner EQT, enabling the group's revenue to grow from €1.5 billion today to €2 billion by 2024. It is built around 4 pillars:

• Reinforcing the competitiveness of its Water Services in France.
• Accelerating the growth of its Industrial Water division, thanks to the creation of a complete technological platform following the acquisitions of Nijhuis Industries, Unidro and Econvert, brought together in a new Industry hub.
• Expanding international activities.
• Consolidating the Engineering business, with the combination of its Stereau and Cise-TP subsidiaries.

The project presented today aims at implementing the first pillar of this roadmap. It would enable the Group's organization to be more operationally responsive and would strengthen the links between the field and support teams, resulting in greater operational and service quality for our customers and consumers.

This project would result in a new territorial organization of the group, which would include:

• A new rationale for the locations of its Operations Control Centers (OCC), which would grow from the current 11 to 21 OCCs in the future organization, closer to the territories.
• A new logic for the territorial division of the management chain to better fit the specificities of each territory.
• The creation of a dedicated sales force for works activities, i.e., teams dedicated to the commercial activity to propose innovative solutions that preserve both the resources and the assets of the territories.

In line with the ongoing dialogue with the social partners, this transformation project would also involve measures to reallocate resources within the Water Services branch in France, which is a necessary prerequisite for regaining margins of action and restoring its sustainable growth.

Patrick Blethon, Executive Chairman of Saur, said: "The challenge of the ecological transition calls upon our Group to strengthen its commitment to stand for water. This implies, in particular, reinventing the organization of our Water Services in France. Our objective must be to make Saur the most innovative, responsible and attractive global player in the water sector. We are convinced that the social dialogue we have established with our employee representation bodies is the key to our success”.