E.On has revealed that its Industrial and Commercial unit is to combine with npower’s Business Solutions arm.
Under the proposals, npower Business Solutions will be combined with E.On’s existing industrial and commercial activity in the UK, with the integration set to complete by the end of 2021.
“These are fundamentally two complementary companies that bring together wider expertise in different areas of the market,” E.On UK and npower chief executive Michael Lewis said.
“What this means for British business is an expansion of our abilities to offer a greater range of smarter and personalised support to help meet their business efficiency and zero carbon ambitions.”
E.On acquired npower in 2019 in a move that saw it cut 4,500 jobs as part of a major restructuring of npower. The acquisition had a negative impact on E.On’s financial results for 2019, causing its net income to fall by 49%.
Since the acquisition, npower Business Solutions has continued to operate independently. Bringing the two businesses together will provide UK companies will access to a “greater range of industry expertise and energy solutions”, E.On said.
Detailed plans are to be drawn up for how the businesses will be brought together, including information on working locations and timelines to migrate all customers to a joint IT system.
Earlier this year, E.On announced a deal with the Octopus Group’s Kraken Technologies as it looks to build what it has dubbed the E.Onnext platform, with E.On customers to be moved over to the Kraken platform over the course of a year.
In January, it unveiled plans to supply over 100,000 small business customers with 100% renewables-backed electricity over the course of 2020, as well as announcing in July plans to switch to 100% renewables-backed electricity for its domestic customers.
“Bringing together our two successful Industrial & Commercial units into a single organisation creates one of the largest B2B energy businesses in the UK,” Lewis added.
“This is the latest stage of a process to build a more sustainable business and to succeed in this extremely challenging market.”
