Borders gas and electricity firm Spark Energy, which specialises in the lettings sector, has opened a business services arm.
The company has launched Spark Business Utilities, an energy service initially targeting high street letting and estate agents.Spark Business Utilities claims it offers competitive fixed-term gas and electricity deals for commercial premises that can save money over a period of up to three years.
Chris Gauld, the chief executive of Spark who led a 2016 management buyout of the firm, said: “The move into business energy is really exciting for us and shows the appetite of the group to find more and better ways of adding real value for our commercial partners.
“Business energy is something our partners in the property industry have been asking us about for some time."
He said: “We know that they’re facing numerous challenges and Spark Business Utilities will help them to meet some of these by reducing their costs and preserving their hard-earned margin.
"In fact, we’ve been able to offer savings of more than £20,000 to partners compared to what they were paying on with their existing Big Six energy supplier."
Mr Gauld, above, said clients’ property portfolios could be contained in one account "but with full visibility at a branch by branch level".
The venture is the second launched by the Spark Group this year after its PropTech platform, a digital home move assistant that adds additional extra revenue for agents and improves the home move experience for customers.
In February, Spark Energy, which has more than 400 employees, said it had grown revenue to a record £159.3 million in its first full financial year since the management buyout, with pre-tax profits lifting five per cent to £4.2m.
The Selkirk-based group, which made its first acquisition in the year to June 30 2017, grew revenue by 26% as customer numbers increased by 34% to 355,000.
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