Ei Group, the UK’s largest pub company, has leveraged its size and scale to launch ‘Pub Energy’, unlocking savings for its publicans.
The brand-new scheme, using the knowledge and experience gained through its managed house operations, will help Ei Publican Partnerships publicans reduce their utility costs at the end of their current agreements with market-leading prices on gas and electricity through carefully-selected providers.
There has been huge interest from publicans keen to take advantage since Pub Energy was launched at the Group’s eilive road shows last month - and has achieved average savings in excess of 10% per pub to date, over the duration of the contract period.
Pub Energy has partnered with ista, one of the world’s leading energy solutions companies, as well as UGP and CNG, regulated gas and electricity suppliers, to leverage the best rates. The scheme will constantly review contract costs available in the marketplace to ensure it offers the most competitive rates.
The new cost-reduction scheme will give publicans access to rates to help them make informed decisions, acting as the intermediary between them and the provider. It will also provide a single point of contact to help publicans manage their utility bills, protecting them from the complications of communicating with several brokers and providers.
Pub Energy is part of a wider suite of business support tools available on the Publican Channel which provide significant cost-savings to those running a site with Ei Publican Partnerships. Other examples include access to professional Business Rates advice, energy efficiency, purchasing and insurance.
Paul Harbottle, Group Commercial Director at Ei Group, said, “Energy costs are consistently one of the largest overheads for publicans together with business rates and staffing.
'We are therefore constantly seeking new ways to help our publicans drive greater profitability; this involves us leading on new initiatives which will reduce costs and save time. We’ve built the Pub Energy scheme to ensure we get it just right for our publicans and pass on the entire saving.
“By partnering with a global leading energy company which has many years’ experience of working alongside pubs, we are saving our publicans from two things: hidden high costs and the time spent speaking to several different suppliers, both of which take the focus away from running a great pub.”
One publican who has benefited to date is Antony Rees from The Spread Eagle. He added, “We’ve had an absolutely brilliant experience with Pub Energy. We first encountered the scheme at eilive and the team on the stand were great – I was contacted shortly afterwards and would highly recommend it to any publican.
'The level of savings available via Pub Energy was unreal, with over £14k savings per annum on my current gas and electric costs combined.”
Publicans can register their interest via the Publican Channel and can also sign up via their Regional Managers. In 2020, Ei Group will launch a digital platform whereby publicans can complete the entire registration process online.