Tag: Utilitrack

How best to compare the market? No meerkats required.

If you are a business customer, switching energy supplier can make a big difference to your bottom line. In the current climate it is very difficult to increase ones prices to improve profits so best to focus on the costs in your business.

There are many suppliers in the market and it can be difficult to find the time to speak to more than a few of them to get a representative sample to measure the market rate.

Getting the timing right to know when to have those conversation is vital. Most businesses don’t know when their contracts end or when to serve notice so that they can leave their current supplier once it expires.

Understanding your contract is essential to the comparison process. Ofgem wants to make sure that businesses understand how to compare deals and how to go about switching. They have produced a guide on their website but so much easier to have someone do the shopping for you!

Find a broker that is independent, transparent and free of charge. Your broker will be able to help you with all the above issues.

Utilitrack is such a broker, we are independent of all suppliers and do not favour one supplier over another; we are transparent as we show our clients the results of our tender process and we are free. We do not take any share of any savings we make for you or charge you for the service. We are recognised by the suppliers who pay an industry standard commission based on usage and not your spend.

If you’d like to know more please call Gerard Duggan on 0845 6041484.

Volatile market conditions

…it’s even more important for client’s to review the market before they renew their contract.

“We are seeing as unique set of circumstances affecting the energy market. Oil prices have increased due to the instability in the Middle East. Historically electricity and oil prices are inextricably linked on the European market, an increase in one leads to rise in the other commodity.

Japan has lost a significant amount of its nuclear capacity as a consequence of the earth quake and tsunami that struck its coastline. Japan is turning to Liquid Petroleum Gas to generate the missing capacity it needs to recover; a fuel that Europe relies on to generate electricity.

The German nuclear sector has, as a precaution, shut down a number of its nuclear plants to review the cooling pumps used in the reactors. Both the German and Japanese plants are of the same generation. The reduced generation capacity has left a gap in the market causing further price pressure.”

What a customer said recently…

“We’d previously looked after our own electricity contract and its renewal. We had done a little homework before we invited Utilitrack to help us. We were delighted with the result.

Thank you very much for sorting [our renewal] – I am very pleased – could you be my accountant too and save me even more money!!”

R E Director – S T UK Ltd Stone Fabricators

 If you’d like me to help your business make sure it is getting best value please call me on 0845 604 1484

Measure your usage – sounds boring but could save many £££

Peter Drucker said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” But it’s a bit boring watching your electricity meter slowly turning. So why not install a digital electricity usage meter that displays to the nearest watt how much energy your firm is consuming? Meters aren’t expensive. You can pick up a Current Cost Envi digital display (made by British entrepreneur Martin Dix) for under £40 on eBay. Installation is non-technical and takes 30 seconds. If you input your price per kilowatt hour, it will translate the energy statistics into pound signs. The display is wireless, so you can keep it on your desk. You’ll be surprised what an impact the installation of such a device will have on consumption.

Do you spend less than £50,000 on Energy?

If your energy bill is under £50,000 the Carbon Trust can’t offer you much advice so speak to Energy Efficiency in Business (EEiB). Poole based EEIB have a practical assessment process for SME businesses and have energy specialists in many parts of the UK. They can help install simple devices to assist you achieve those all important quick wins and develop leveraging to your newly found green credentials.

The surveys they conduct qualify for training grants and therefore may not cost you anything but save you on average £3500 so well worth a call…speak to Dan Claridge on 0845 5678 100.

Simple answer for Simplified IT Company

“We hadn’t considered using a broker to help us purchase our energy contracts before but I met Gerard at a networking event and though I’d try his business out. I was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to engage the services of Utilitrack; I only needed to provide a copy of my latest gas and electricity bills. Gerard’s accounts team renewed both our gas and electricity contracts with our current provider and saved us money. As a result of engaging Utilitrack, which didn’t cost us anything, our gas bill is 19% lower and we are paying 28% less for our electricity. I’ve started recommending Gerard to my clients.”

 AvecSys – IT Simplified

Have you heard the story of the happy White Horse?

“Gerard at Utilitrack helped us renew our gas contract in January 2010; at the time our supply was with Shell Gas. Utilitrack made sure our cancellation notice was served to our current supplier to ensure we weren’t rolled into a new contract or went into expensive out of contract rates. Gerard’s team tendered our contract to the open market and they had six responses including a renewal rate from our current supplier. Shell offered a better rate than we were currently paying, some 15% but British Gas more than doubled this which means we have over £1800 extra in our account.

Utilitrack were able to achieve this without any impact on our day to day business; two short meetings with Gerard, one to gather a copy of our bills and one to sign off the contract was all it took. I’d recommend you speak to Utilitrack to see what they can save you. We look forward to Gerard helping us renew our future energy contracts.”

The White Horse Pub Newnam Ave Bedford

Financial fitness at Fitness 4 Less

“When I heard that Energie had partnered with Utilitrack to make sure that I had the opportunity to benchmark my energy spend I was intrigued to learn more. I called Nick (Gerard’s business partner) at Utilitrack and with very little effort from me he got in touch with my energy suppliers and then arranged a competitive price tender across the whole of the market, including my existing supplier, to make sure I could benefit from the ‘win’ rate and not just the ‘renewal’ rate. I saved 23% on my gas bill and 36% on my electricity bill. I urge any member clubs to do the same thing!”

Andy Ingham, Manager at Fitness 4 Less, Canterbury

So can we help you today?

BBC appoint a new expert

If your energy needs are complex, consider delegating negotiations to a third party. Utilitrack Ltd is a Yorkshire-based broker with offices in Bedford who specialise in managing the utility needs of small and medium sized firms. Utilitrack will find you the cheapest deal and provide you with expert information on long-term energy trends so you can take action to hedge against price spikes.

The Blackburn Broadcast Company part of The Local Radio Company plc have asked us to negoiate their next energy contract, only a matter of time before the other BBC asks for our help!

Shop Around

If you’ve been with your utility company for more than two years, chances are you’re paying too much. For gas, electricity and water, it’s imperative to search the market annually for the best deal. With 11,000 different tariffs and tricky termination rules, this could be a chore, so use a utility broker who can connect you with the whole of the market. Beware of those who represent one or two utility companies they may not offer the best value or best savings.

Treatment of SMEs “beyond belief”

Britain’s big energy companies are forcing as many as 250,000 small businesses to pay for their energy up to seven months in advance, it has emerged.

Alistair Buchanan, chief executive of Ofgem, the energy regulator, called the companies including Scottish Power, British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, RWE Npower and SSE to a meeting in London recently to express mounting concern about the practice, which it is feared could put companies into real difficulty.

Stephen Alambritis, at the Federation of Small Businesses, estimates that about one million of Britain’s 4.7 million small and medium-sized businesses have been contacted by their energy companies in recent months and informed of tougher payment conditions in a move designed to help to shield suppliers from the impact of the growing number of companies entering insolvency.

About a quarter of those some 250,000 small businesses employing 2.5 million people, have been asked to pay an element of their bills upfront, Mr Alambritis added.

Scottish Power, E.ON and British Gas are among those to have tightened their credit conditions recently.

Nick Campbell, an energy trader at Inenco, the consultancy, estimates that UK companies are now being forced to pay up to £350 million in advance for their energy. He said that suppliers appeared to be targeting businesses by sector and that industries heavily exposed to the downturn such as manufacturing, car-making, construction and retail were particularly hard hit.

“There is less risk appetite where these businesses are concerned,” said Mr Campbell. “The vast majority of businesses in these sectors could expect to be hit by these restrictions.”

About 40,000 UK companies are expected to enter insolvency during 2009, a 62 per cent increase on 2007.

Jeremy Nicholson, director of the Energy Intensive Users Group, the lobbying organisation, said some companies in the ceramics industry had been asked to pay seven months’ worth of their energy bills upfront a trend that he described as “beyond belief” in the current environment.

The problem has intensified because credit insurers, which pay the bills of companies that are insolvent, have withdrawn from certain industries amid a surge in business failures.

David Cockshott, head of corporate sales at Npower, said that as many as 60 per cent of new customer applications were now being rejected by trade credit insurers, up from 5 per cent two years ago.

The lack of cover has prompted energy companies both to demand deposits and to seek payment of invoices in as little as five days or customers face having their supplies cut.

Mr Alambritis said he was “very concerned”. “The energy companies have started using some very aggressive tactics. They have been concerned by the high level of bankruptcies. But asking for money upfront puts businesses in an even more precarious situation.”