Green supplier Good Energy has remained steady in 2019 as it continues its strategy of being more than a “passive” energy supplier.
It saw a 6.3% increase in revenues across the year, from £116.9 million in 2018 to £124.3 million, which was driven by growth in business supply customers and the domestic price rise in January 2019.
However, it saw a slight decrease in operating profit, falling 3.2% from £6.6 million to £6.4 million. Profit before tax also fell, tumbling 45.4% from £2.3 million to £1.3 million. The supplier attributed this to the £865,000 of non-underlying costs associated with the adoption of Octopus’ Kraken customer services platform.
Good Energy also invested in electric vehicle platform ZapMap in 2019. The investment comes in at a total of £1.07 million, with £0.2 million of this left to pay this month.
The supplier saw a significant increase in its business supply customers, which grew by 33%, largely driven by SME growth following increased investment in its sales teams, the company said. Total business customers increased by 4.9%.
Also notable was a 32.5% surge in domestic feed-in tariff (FiT) customers – including business FiT customers growing by 3.8% – following a jump in registrations before the scheme closed in Q1 of 2019.
The FiT remains an “important aspect” of Good Energy’s business and is the foundation of energy as a service in its business model, with the supplier aiming to be more than what it describes as a “passive” energy supplier.
However, the supplier saw its domestic customers fall by over 8% in 2019, with reducing churn and improving the cost to acquire new customers remaining a focus. Overall, its customer numbers increased by 2.5% in 2019 to 266,500.
Juliet Davenport, CEO and founder of Good Energy, said the supplier has made “good strides” in 2019 to stay ahead of the market as it transitions towards innovative, technology based clean energy services.
“We are operationally resilient, despite a challenging retail market, underpinned by a good cash position and a cash generative business model,” she added.
Technology and digitalisation is to underpin all Good Energy’s future growth plans, with the investments into Kraken and ZapMap as early examples of this.
The implementation phase for Kraken has begun, with the platform being rolled out to its customers in several waves throughout the first half of 2020.
Alongside its ZapMap investment, the supplier also launched an EV charging service dubbed One Point, and this month unveiled a partnership with charging company Engenie, marking its focus on the EV market.
“We are witnessing a sea change in the relationship the UK has with energy – a shift from supplying to sharing. We have helped drive this for 20 years and today, as decentralisation, digitalisation and decarbonisation become the new norms, are anticipating a gearshift that will lead to significant growth opportunities,” Davenport continued.
The company also outlined how it had seen no “significant financial impact” from COVID-19, but is continuing to monitor the situation closely while planning for a “range of scenarios including changes to current government guidance or policy”.
Earlier this week, the IEA warned that the green energy transition must not be derailed by efforts to respond to the global COVID-19 emergency, and in the UK the Energy Networks Association has outlined the network operators’ measures for keeping the networks running during the pandemic.
