Bulb’s revenues are up 85%, helping to reduce its operating losses to £59 million as its customer base surges.
As such, its revenues for the year ending March 2020 hit £1.521 billion, up from £823 million the previous year. The company’s gross margin therefore increased to £177 million from just £8 million in the year ending March 2019.
Significantly, its net operating loss fell by more than half from £129 million, despite significant investment in technology and expansion.
Bulb’s customer base increased by 46% during the year, from 1,139,483 to 1,661,889, and as such makes up 6% of the UK energy market. During 2019, it made up 15% of all supplier switches.
Since the end of March 2020, the company has continued to grow and is now bigger for duel fuel than Big Six provider npower.
Hayden Wood, co-founder and CEO of Bulb, said the 2019/20 accounts show that people are “voting with their feet for green energy, fair prices and excellent service”.
“As well as increasing our member base, we’ve continued to grow our revenue and keep investing in our team and our global expansion. Our team’s grown to over 1,000, our international markets are growing fast and we’re looking forward to launching in more new markets soon.”
Since the end of March 2020, Bulb has expanded into the US, launching in Texas in September 2020, a plan it initially announced in 2019. It has also launched in France and Spain, and is targeting 100 million households around the world by 2030.
It was recently ranked as the fastest growing company in Europe in the Financial Times top 100 list, taking the top spot with a compound annual growth rate of 1159.3%.
“We’re proud to be the fastest-growing company in Europe,” added Wood. “We’re fueling a green recovery, creating hundreds of tech jobs and helping the UK reach its net zero targets.”
In order to facilitate the continued expansion, Bulb opened a new office in Brighton in October 2020. It has also expanded its senior leadership team, including appointing Paul Ablin as its new chief financial officer.
The results note that while the World Health Organisation declared the novel strain of COVID-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020, it did not have an impact on these results. Bulb reacted quickly to lockdown, moving to remote working and was able to ensure none of its staff was furloughed.
It notes that it expects non-payment rates and bad debt to increase in next year’s financials, and that the company is monitoring the situation closely but is “unable to predict the future impact” fully at the time.
