After over 20 years treating contaminated wastewater from the infrastructure, industrial and municipal sectors, Siltbuster has become an expert in wastewater treatment solutions.
Siltbuster is a UK leader in onsite water treatment to the infrastructure, industrial and municipal sectors
Lewys Rowles, Sales Director, explained to Hannah Barnett how the company maintains its market leader status.
"Decades of experience in design, development and engineering techniques have been incorporated into the Siltbuster technology. The company has the largest rental fleet of wastewater treatment in the UK and Europe. This allows ultimate flexibility to provide the most appropriate, sustainable offering to each client, utilising proven technology in novel applications.
We always prioritise the best solution for our customers, based on their needs," Sales Director Lewys Rowles said. "The size of our rental fleet enables us to pick the most appropriate option that each customer requires based on the footprint that they have, considering the volumes and types of wastewater that they need to treat, but also to the standards that they need to treat to."
Growth and evolution
Siltbuster was founded in 2003 to provide mobile wastewater treatment to UK infrastructure. The first major project, Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport, used a patented FB50 lamella settlement plant.
"In that project we provided the first evolution of our lamella clarifier units," explained Mr Rowles. "Prior to us providing that solution, the best practice on construction sites was essentially a silt fence and straw bales. That was to try and catch water runoff with the hope that by the time it reaches any kind of water course outside of the site perimeters, it'd be clean enough. We sought to offer a more measured, accurate level of treatment."
Over the ensuing years, Siltbuster extended its portfolio to include a wide range of modular plug-and-play systems. Working on the BATNEC principle - an acronym for Best Available Technology/ Not Excessive Cost - means always pushing the boundaries of best practice, while responding to legislative changes and considering the client's ultimate needs.
"We are an environmental engineering and manufacturing company at heart," said Mr Rowles, "everything we do is environmentally driven. Considering the sensitivity around the Terminal 5 project, we had to ensure that all our work there was as best practice as possible."
Since Heathrow, the company has provided services at other key infrastructure projects around the UK such as HS2 and Hinkley Point, always continuing to evolve and develop it's offering.
"Looking now at what we do on projects such as HS2 versus what we did on that first major project at Terminal 5, the difference is staggering," Mr Rowles reflected. "But at the same time, there was no way we could do such a complex system as we put on HS2 back in 2003. This is how we, as a company, continuously evolve and move the boundaries and understanding of the industry, especially in the infrastructure water treatment space."
Centres of excellence
Siltbuster stands out because it can offer permanent units for sale, as well as for rent. Having that flexibility allows the company to successfully be the water treatment, market leader in three key sectors.
"First and foremost is the infrastructure sector where we were founded," Mr Rowles said. "More recently, we have looked at industrial sectors, where we focus on food and beverage wastewater. But now we are also in the municipal sector, a space that has had a lot of negative publicity recently around sites that are not complying with what they're supposed to be doing. And that's when our phones start buzzing off the walls with clients looking for our responsive packaged solutions."
10-acre dedicated facility
In 2017, Siltbuster moved to its 10-acre facility in Monmouth, South Wales.
The facility was purpose-built for the company's requirements, ideal to set up and run a rental fleet from, but also to design, build and project manage larger projects. This allows Siltbuster to create an offering that has both breadth and depth.
Siltbuster's Monmouth facility is used for the configuration and testing of mobile waste water treatment plant, as well as product research, development and customer support
"Monmouth is our centre of excellence, we've got our own dedicated lab, as well as R&D and training facilities," explained Mr Rowles. "We're a CPD-accredited trainer for best practices in wastewater treatment on construction sites. To have those facilities within our main head office is great, but we can also support our customers all over the country, and internationally, through our strategically placed Engineers."
Changed ownership leads to growth
In 2018, the incumbent owner and founder sold out to the Workdry group. This brought with it significant investment to enable the company to build the fleet, expand its offering and undertake many more environmental initiatives.
These on-site initiatives include installing solar power to run the site, rainwater harvesting, dedicated habitat creation and its own wastewater treatment works.
Siltbuster today has around 110 employees, having doubled in size since it was taken over by Workdry with revenue also increasing substantially.
Looking forward
Alongside the size of its fleet, Siltbuster has made a name for its technical expertise, setting the standard for packaged wastewater treatment solutions. All products have been optimised to deliver as big a treatment as possible, with as small a footprint as possible.
The company success is driven by its need for continuous improvement, which feeds into a focus on optimisation of the portfolio and fleet. There are several patented designs on its products. Additionally, the experienced team know exactly what the capabilities of the water treatment equipment are, where it can be applied, and when it should be applied.
"And most importantly, when it shouldn't be applied and when it's best to advise a client of alternatives, which we're not afraid to do," Mr Rowles added.
Packaged systems specialist
As a specialist in packaged systems Siltbuster ensures all its units are designed to be transported on the back of a lorry without the need for specialist transport. The company works closely with local partners throughout South Wales; with all units being fabricated within the UK, then assembled and tested in Monmouth prior to dispatch. The company uses dedicated suppliers for specialist applications like instrumentation, pumps and blowers.
"We always utilise reputable, proven brands with market leading positions," said Mr Rowles. "That's really important for us, because we want to know that when our kit goes out that it's going to be operating right. We don't want to be called back for downtime or cause our clients problems because the kit isn't functional."
"The client doesn't want that. The client wants to make sure they're not going to get fines or damage the environment. The client wants to make sure that everything is fit for purpose. That's why we prioritise quality in all our parts, suppliers and in everything that we do."
A commitment to continuous improvement
Siltbuster is on course to maintain its trajectory of continuous improvement and status as market leader. It will do this by continuing to invest in the company, int its people, in its fleet and in developing its products.
"I've been privileged to be involved in wastewater for over 15 years and to develop wastewater solutions all over the world, from New Zealand and Africa to Latin America" Mr Rowles said, in conclusion.
"But what really drives me is to come back to the UK and be able to make such a big difference here. We don't have to go to far away locations to make positive changes in the water treatment space; its fantastic to have such a market-leading company based here in Wales."
