The privatized water business is supposed
to cover about 800 million people worldwide on the water supply base, and the
two French majors, Veolia and Suez Environment, cover 160 million people
combined. Established in 1853, Veolia is the world’s oldest and largest water
service company with sales of 12.5 billion euro, almost two times more sales
achieved by Suez Environment, and nearly 100,000 people are working for this
company.
Veolia dates back to a company established
by the Napoleon III in 1853 to manage waterworks in Paris. Since 1884, the
company has actively been expanding the business worldwide, and it covers about
140 people in 64 countries at present. It conducts a wide range of business
including designing, procurement of materials, construction of facilities, and
operation and management of the business. Especially, it excels at the
operation and management that is the largest market in the water business. In
addition to providing water treatment from water intake to water discharge, it
offers a wide spectrum service that includes preservation of water resources,
seawater desalination, and collection of charges.
It has competitive advantage in estimating
precisely the needs of a customer and draws a proposal most suitable to the customer.
For example, it made a successful bid in the tender for the management of a
sewage treatment plant in Chiba Prefecture in 2009, though it outbid the
competitors. This is because its proposal contained the plan to automate the
measurement of water quality and introduce photovoltaic generation. It
dispatches its staffs to public agencies of the target country and makes them
involved in the project planning from the initial stage, while building close
relations with international agencies. It procures a large sum of capital for
investment from investment funds, and the country backs it up as the sales
activities of the French president show.
In fact, Veolia has the following six
advantages: (1) a big company size, (2) a wide range of business scope, (3)
accumulated results, (4) the ability to draw an attractive proposal, (5)
national support, and (6) excellent financial power. It is not too much to say
that the ability to promote a project in an integrated manner is vital to the
expansion of the water business to a foreign country. (To be continued)
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