WCSEE Appoints Dedicated Thames Water Account Manager

With water company asset management plans for regulatory period 2025 – 2030 (AMP8) bringing new opportunities for supply chain companies, plans are being put in motion to be at the forefront of innovation and solution delivery.

In this spirit, wastewater treatment specialist WCS Environmental Engineering (WCSEE) has appointed Matthew Roseman as account manager for Thames Water. In an in-depth interview, Roseman set outs his ambitions for collaborative working and scaling adoption of the innovative solutions now available in the market.

Tell us about your background and how you came into the role of Thames Water account manager.
Living in the south and southeast of England my entire life, I have had numerous roles within the water sector - predominantly in water and wastewater operations. I started as a mechanical hand at Southern Water, looking after wastewater assets and process works After 15 years I had worked my way up to area manager for east Kent.

I made the jump into the tier one supply chain through various roles, working both directly and indirectly with Thames Water on multi-million pound infrastructure projects, which gave me a unique understanding of the challenges the company faces.

Most recently I was commercial lead at a supply chain company supplying tertiary treatment equipment. When the position came up at WCSEE, I jumped at the chance as it was the perfect combination of the skills and knowledge I have acquired in my career to date.

What will your day-to-day look like?
Day-to-day is going to be about relationship building, developing key contacts both directly and indirectly in the tier one and tier two supply chain, as well as ongoing conversations with the Thames Water design teams. I am keen to get the WCSEE name and reputation further out there and get more WCSEE hire assets on to Thames Water wastewater sites, with this will come fielding enquires and navigating those processes.

What are your ambitions and plans for the medium to long term?
Thames Water will spend about £15B in AMP8. We are now at the first stage of the AMP cycle where requirements are allocated, contracts and tenders are being awarded, and work is distributed. It is a very fresh faced and opportunistic time - perfect for setting medium to long term ambitions.

In the medium term, I want to get WCSEE assets out into the field, particularly the Hybrid submerged aerated filters for secondary and tertiary wastewater treatment and the Flocell XFM for cutting edge phosphorus treatment.

Long term, work is already in motion to increase the size and capabilities of the Flocell technology, which is not only for hire or as temporary treatment processes during remedial work or upgrades, but for direct plant process solutions too.

How will the results of the Ofwat final determination for AMP8 and the findings from the Independent Water Commission affect how WCSEE operates in its procurement work with Thames Water?
Both the changing attitude of AMP8 and the light the Independant Water Commission will shine on how the sector operates is positive for supply chain companies such as WCSEE, because it is expected that procurement processes will become easier.

Thames Water, and water companies in general, have so much work to deliver in such a small amount of time, with the massive increase in funding – and there are not enough of the big headline companies in the supply chain to deliver that. I know that to be true from attending procurement events for Thames Water and this was the message being conveyed.

In practice, this means more collaborative working, getting more, and smaller, supply chain companies onto tier one and tier two status, and opening more opportunities by actively welcoming and encouraging companies, such as WCSEE, to make themselves known.

With that comes a fast-tracked and less strict onboarding process for companies to become part of framework selector groups in our own right, rather than as tier one and tier two subcontractors – a unique opportunity for WCSEE to take advantage of.

What technologies are you interested in highlighting the most in this context?
For starters, it must be the new Flocell XFM, which is a great example of technology adaptation. Wastewater companies face ongoing challenges in identifying suitable phosphorous solutions in an environment of budgetary constraints and ever tightening discharge consents.

The Flocell XFM is a modular range of filtration systems for tertiary solids and phosphorus removal – originally developed for the aquaculture sector. The open-cell media is designed to efficiently reduce tertiary solids and soft, difficult-to-manage, flocs retaining particulates without increasing pressure within the filter or reducing flow.

The performance of the Flocell XFM40 was proven in a 2024 trial to achieve phosphorus removal levels as low as 0.04mg/litre - consistent with the expectations of AMP8 environmental regulation. The trial was recently presented alongside United Utilities at the European Wastewater Management Conference and received very positive reactions.

Secondly, I want to highlight the WCSEE Hybrid, which is a patented treatment process employing a submerged moving-bed, fixed-film reactor. It treats wastewater with greater energy efficiency than traditional submerged aerated filters, in a tighter site footprint, whilst meeting environmental compliance.

A key advantage of the Hybrid is that it can be retrofitted into any vessel, regardless of shape or size, to deliver more efficient wastewater processing. This has been perfectly demonstrated in the successful collaboration with Wessex Water at Sherborne wastewater treatment works.

As AMP8 gets begins in earnest, what is the one thing you want to say to the design teams at water companies to get their attention?
Please look outside the box. My old saying is ‘If you always do, it's always done, you'll always get, what you always got.’

If design teams do not look outside the box, they will never evolve and never learn. Give companies like WCSEE the opportunity to prove their technology is as good, if not better, than others on the market and the discoveries you make will not disappoint.