Highland Spring taps Acumen for round-the-clock cyber cover

Highland Spring Group has selected Acumen Cyber to provide 24/7 threat monitoring, investigation and response, adding external cyber security support to the bottled water producer's internal IT operation.

The deal links one of the UK's best-known bottled water businesses with a Glasgow-based cyber security provider at a time when manufacturers face growing pressure to protect production systems, business data and supply chains from disruption.

Family-owned Highland Spring, based in Blackford, Perthshire, bottles about 600 million litres of water each year and employs around 500 staff. Its brands include Highland Spring and Hydr8, alongside private-label flavoured and unflavoured waters for major supermarkets and foodservice retailers.

Acumen will work alongside Highland Spring's in-house IT team to provide continuous monitoring and incident response support. The service will be delivered from Acumen's CREST-accredited Security Operations Centre in Glasgow, with UK-based security engineers working directly with the customer's team.

The appointment follows what the companies described as an extensive tender process. Highland Spring selected Acumen for its technical approach, direct access to the engineers delivering the service, and a pricing structure designed to provide budget certainty.

The agreement comes after Highland Spring increased investment in security technology, infrastructure and internal resources. It concluded that maintaining constant monitoring while managing day-to-day operations and longer-term projects was putting pressure on its existing team.

Under the contract, Acumen will add specialist support to Highland Spring's current set-up and help the business detect, investigate and respond to threats around the clock. The partnership is intended to give Highland Spring's IT staff greater visibility of security risks and more time to focus on infrastructure and broader security planning.

Operational pressure

Cyber security is a growing concern for manufacturers and consumer goods groups, particularly those with complex logistics, production sites and retailer relationships. Disruption to systems can affect manufacturing output, order processing, distribution and data security.

For Highland Spring, operational reliability was central to the decision to seek outside support. Tracy Holbein, IT Manager at Highland Spring Group, said: "Keeping our operations running reliably is essential to Highland Spring. This partnership will give us round-the-clock specialist support and more time for our own team to focus on preventing problems and strengthening our security. Acumen stood out because of the rapport between our teams and their enthusiasm for working with us. That gave us confidence that we could build a close and productive partnership."

Acumen said its service combines security information and event management tools, automation, threat intelligence and proactive threat hunting. It also tests detections against real-world attack techniques as part of its operating model.

Engineer access

One factor in the selection process was Highland Spring's preference for working directly with the engineers responsible for day-to-day delivery, rather than through a more distant service structure. The CREST accreditation of Acumen's Security Operations Centre was also cited as a source of assurance.

Mark Robertson, Chief Executive Officer at Acumen Cyber, said: "We're delighted to be working with Highland Spring, a business that recognises the importance of investing in cyber security to protect its people, its operations and the trust its customers and partners place in it.

"Our role is to work as an extension of Highland Spring's team, with named security engineers who understand the business and take responsibility for strengthening its defences. That means continually improving protection as threats evolve and backing confidence with evidence. We continuously validate our detection capabilities against real-world attack techniques, using the findings to improve the security we deliver."

The contract adds a consumer goods manufacturer to Acumen's customer base as demand grows for managed detection and response services among organisations seeking around-the-clock coverage without building a full in-house security operation.