Neal Waters and Simon Gunn_ Universal Tanker Group

Neal Waters (left) and Simon Gunn (right).

Middlesbrough-based Waters Waste Services has merged with Universal Tanker Solutions, which operates out of St Helens in Merseyside.

The merger has resulted in the creation of the Universal Tanker Group, although the respective brands will live on, and is the first step in its national expansion.

Although it provides some emergency response services, the mainstay of the group’s business is waste services and the supply of fresh water for portable cabins, especially in the construction industry.

The combined group has 40 vacuum tankers, with Whale Tankers and Sayers Road Tankers the main suppliers. Traction is supplied by a mainly rigid fleet of 26- to 32-tonners from Daf and Volvo. Annual group turnover will be approximately £10m with 50 employees.

Depots in Teesside, St Helens, Newcastle upon Tyne, Doncaster, Bromsgrove, Milton Keynes, Beaconsfield and Dartford will soon be joined by a Swindon location.

Waters Waste Services transport and business manager Tom Waters said: “We’re family-run companies that share an ethos of putting the customer first. We’re expanding as a number of our customers – many of which are national – want us to replicate our services in the south.”

MD Simon Gunn (pictured right) and son Toby Gunn are directors of the new group, with Waters Waste principal Neal Waters (pictured left) taking on the role of northern regional manager.