Pure Planet faces becoming latest casualty of industry crisis

bristolleedsfan

Deleted_User said:

UnclaimedEnergy said:

Thrugelmir said:

Any company which hasn't sufficiently hedged it's exposure is going to fail. Wafer thin margins resulting in attractive selling prices for new customers is never going to be a long term viable business strategy. 

Even ones which had hedged will be in trouble.
When hedging they would had likely accounted for customer churn on house moves and fixed tariff endings.

With customer losses basically at zero, they need to now buy that extra power for Winter.

You've also got all of the biggest suppliers taking on extra customers through SoLR and having to buy the extra power for them.

I doubt anyone had fully hedged in anticipation of there being 0 customer movement over winter.

Approximate hedging against the price cap being below the cost of energy is actually possible. The current (Oct-Mar) cap is based on wholesale prices from last Feb-Jul (I think), so suppliers could have been hedging 1/6 of their estimated required energy for customers on variable rates during Oct-(next)Mar each month during last Feb-Jul, when wholesale prices were much lower. Of course, in other years, wholesale prices fall during the year, and they would have lost out by hedging.

That kind of hedging involves estimating the number of variable rate customers you'll have, which of course is always approximate. And this year, they would tend to underestimate, not so much because of transfers (which can be either in or out), but because more people than usual whose fixes are ending are now going to stay on variable, instead of taking out another fix.

Thanks for pointing all of that out, I was under the impression that only fixed rates could be hedged

wittynamegoeshere

It's entirely possible that the likes of Shell may not be subsidiaries of the parent company of the same name.  I won't spend the time needed to check the details, but the brand means nothing.

Some may be owned by the company of the same name, others not.  Sharing a name and logo does not mean that they're the same company.

One example I know of is Virgin Media.  This is not owned by Virgin and never has been.  They've always just paid Virgin a rental fee to use their brand name.  NTL changed their name when they bought Virgin Mobile, it was what they called a reverse takeover, as the company buying was renamed to match the one being bought, not the other way round as normal.  Branson just gets a cheque every month, no risk and no effort.  Literally money for nothing.

Another is Dunlop - premium tyres from one company, trashy trainers from Sports Direct, or conveyor belts, or cables.  All have the same name and logo, all are made and sold by different and completely unrelated businesses.

Of course there's Rolls Royce too - one company makes jumbo jet engines, the other makes tarted-up BMWs.  Same name and logo, absolutely no connection.

scrimpandsave

MWT said:

scrimpandsave said:

follow on questions is can they really under these circumstances charge me an exit fee if I jump now? I almost certainly know this is a yes 🥴

Yes, if you jump ship before it actually sinks they can charge you as per your contract terms.

Generally speaking though you may not want to jump before you are pushed as you'll probably be better off on a SVT with the SoLR, unless you are going to have a try at the BG Zero tariff, or going to see how much longer Neon Reef can survive...

Figured, ever the optimist though! 😂 didn’t know about bg tariff and wouldn’t risk neon reef now. Will be better off letting it take it’s course. Thank you! Fairly sure you helped me last time as well!

mattios

I've just moved house and Pure Planet are the company who are automatically supplying our energy. I was about to actually join them as their quote seemed cheaper than any other on the Energy Club. Should I just leave it for now?

worrywart_3

You don’t need to join them you will
automatically be with them on a deemed tarrif that will be the cheapest you can find don’t think there’s much point shopping around but be prepared they may go under 

spot1034

I suspect the main problem will be contacting them to let them know you've taken over the property. 

wittynamegoeshere

Just take readings, with photos of the meters and do whatever you can online to register.

Then relax and/or do something useful with your time.

Your power will never be getting switched off so you have nothing to worry about, it's all just a matter of which pointless company your 21p/unit is going to end up going to.

[Deleted User]

Typically irresponsible of Mr Peston

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-10-11/bps-decision-to-pull-plug-on-pure-planet-may-be-gloomiest-energy-news-yet

It hasn't happened yet. 

prowla

I've been with them since March; oh well, nevermind...

UnclaimedEnergy

Deleted_User said:

Typically irresponsible of Mr Peston

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-10-11/bps-decision-to-pull-plug-on-pure-planet-may-be-gloomiest-energy-news-yet

It hasn't happened yet. 

TBH at the moment anyone reporting on it is just using the Sky News article as a source and trying to get readers themselves.

Until something with new and credible information is published, I wouldn't read much into anything else.