sainsburys energy - bad move?

Lee12345

Obviously it's branding dur! Obviously people should be aware who they are dealing with, especially when it's British Gas as they are completely rubbish, I would have expected better from Sainsbury's as they have a good reputation, why they have teamed up with British Gas is a mystery to me...

Cardew

Lee12345 wrote: »

Obviously it's branding dur! Obviously people should be aware who they are dealing with, especially when it's British Gas as they are completely rubbish, I would have expected better from Sainsbury's as they have a good reputation, why they have teamed up with British Gas is a mystery to me...

Why just single out British Gas as complete rubbish?

People love to hate gas/electricity companies(often with good reason) and and every company gets criticised on MSE. In fact on the various surveys BG isn't the worst by a long way - EDF have just taken the 'crown' from NPower.

When gas/electricity was privatised, Sainsburys along with a score of other companies - Virgin etc jumped on the bandwagon thinking it would be easy profit.

It didn't turn out to be lucrative so the majority sold out to the 'Big 6' and some like Sainsbury's retained the name - no doubt as part of the deal.

macman

So who exactly did you think Sainsburys were teamed up with then?
Or do you think that Tesco have their own insurance company, John Lewis have their own broadband network, etc etc? Almost ever major brand does this, you simply failed to do the most basic research (by signing up at a supermarket). Why is that Sainsburys' fault?

MillicentBystander

Cardew wrote: »

Why just single out British Gas as complete rubbish?

People love to hate gas/electricity companies(often with good reason) and and every company gets criticised on MSE. In fact on the various surveys BG isn't the worst by a long way - EDF have just taken the 'crown' from NPower.

When gas/electricity was privatised, Sainsburys along with a score of other companies - Virgin etc jumped on the bandwagon thinking it would be easy profit.

It didn't turn out to be lucrative so the majority sold out to the 'Big 6' and some like Sainsbury's retained the name - no doubt as part of the deal.

I genuinely had no idea Sainsburys once had their own, standalone, energy division so thanks for that. But didn't Sainsburys used to re-sell EDF so how did that work?

Cardew

MillicentBystander wrote: »

I genuinely had no idea Sainsburys once had their own, standalone, energy division so thanks for that. But didn't Sainsburys used to re-sell EDF so how did that work?

From this it seems that there were 50 gas suppliers in 2003

http://www.eniukgas.co.uk/commercial/history.htm

2000s
In 2000 the Utilities Act came into force and saw the launch of a new regulatory body, energywatch.


At the end of 2003, there were approximately 50 gas suppliers active in the UK gas market.

Most start-up brands were either acquired or went belly-up. The so-called ‘Big 6’ energy providers today supply about 99% of UK households, with just a handful of small businesses sharing the rest.

I assume that many of the smaller energy providers(Sainsbury's/Virgin etc) had an arrangement rather like Ebico has with Southern Electricity

macman

Ebico is not a branding of SSE. They simply buy their wholesale product from SSE's wholesale side.

MillicentBystander

I'm sure SSE also do their CS and billing, don't they?

Cardew

MillicentBystander wrote: »

I'm sure SSE also do their CS and billing, don't they?

Correct.

I get both gas and electricity from Ebico and everything comes on SSE headed paper and you can manage your account on SSE.co.uk. The only difference is SSE call the tariffs 'Equigas general' and 'Equipower standard'

Everything on the bill alludes to SSE including their profit margin!!!

A SSE rep answers the phone as well.

macman

I stand corrected. But Ebico are not a division of SSE. From your description, they just appear to have outsourced most of their operational functions to the company that they happen to buy their wholesale product from.
Slightly different to operations like Sainsburys or M&S, who in effect simply brand the BG/SSE product and receive a royalty on it.

Cardew

Although a reasonable assumption, I don't know if they buy their wholesale product from SSE. Their arrangements would be 'commercial in confidence'.