Love Energy Savings hit the utilities market in 2007 with one mission: to help businesses save as much money as possible on their gas and electricity.
Founder Phil Foster has a strong desire to support small to medium sized businesses in the UK to make much needed savings on their utility bills. It was for that reason he was motivated to create Love Energy Savings, to help both business owners not only improve their profits through utility savings, but also save valuable time in the process of comparing and switching suppliers.
Since launching in 2007, Love Energy Savings has grown to become the UK’s most trusted business energy comparison service provider in the UK, assisting more than 40,000 clients nationwide with a 4.8 star rating on TrustPilot from over 14k reviews – a true testament to our commitment to help customers.
Love Energy Savings Gains £25 Million Investment
A pivotal point for Love Energy Savings came in 2018, when we received a £25 million investment from mid-market private equity investor, LDC, in a secondary management buyout of our business.
This marked a very important and exciting time for us. We continued to diversify our service offerings and harnessed the best technology to drive our business forward.
Our CEO, Phil Foster, said of the investment by LDC: “This is a monumental moment in our history, one that will enable us to accelerate our organic growth strategy, including our expansion into water, telecoms and insurance markets. “This investment will positively enhance the trajectory of our business, and we’re incredibly excited for what the future holds”.
The following year, in October 2019 the partnership won Deal of the Year (£10m – £50m) at the North West Dealmaker Awards. In LDC we have a partner that not only provides the financial backing we need to turbocharge growth, but one with a strong track record of driving growth at technology-led businesses in the energy sector.
Since the investment from LDC, we have continued to build strong relationships with energy suppliers including the ‘Big Six’ and many independent providers. This gives our customers instant access to the best and most competitive energy tariffs on the market in seconds.
At Love Energy Savings, we don’t just ‘do’ energy — we live and breathe it, too. We are the people at the center of the ever-changing energy industry. We’re committed to providing businesses with the insights to navigate the fluctuating energy market successfully. The result is that we’ve helped hundreds of thousands of customers switch to a cheaper deal – saving them millions of pounds in the process.
Overcoming Challenges
Covid Crisis
Like all businesses, Love Energy Savings faced challenges during Covid. On the date of the first Lockdown announcement, we had over 250 staff working in the office, within 2 days every employee was working from home. The logistics of this change was a huge cross functional project, as no staff were previously set up to work from home. We were very fortunate in the fact that we had a robust, adaptable team in place who played a huge part in investing their energy into supporting the initial roll out of the tools to aid our team-mates in working from home. This started with the set up of systems, having an open forum where people could reach out for assistance and generally being advocates of home working.
When the world began to open back up we were able to adapt our learnings from our initial experience into delivering training and onboarding new team-mates over online platforms. Over time Love Energy Savings have not only embraced the new normal of employees working from home, but we have actually turned this to our advantage. We have a flexible workplace policy, named Flexible Flexible, with many of our employees now entirely remote, so we can recruit talent from across the whole of the UK. With this policy we go above and beyond for employees, with people able to dip in and out of work when required for an hour or so. Introducing flexible remote working has meant that we can recruit the best talent Nationwide and Love Energy Savings has benefited as a result.
A further impact of Covid on the energy market was that product offerings were restricted. As the hospitality industry came to a halt, energy suppliers would not take on new customers from the hospitality industry or allow them to switch. We worked hard for those customers who no one else was assisting at the time. We not only helped industries which were closed to manage their bills while they were shut, but we also reached out to Ofgem to address the position these businesses found themselves in. Slowly all sector restrictions have been removed, thanks in part to our strong relationships with suppliers and Ofgem.
The Energy Crisis
Further challenges came in the face of the Energy Crisis of November 2021. With unstable prices, suppliers stopped allowing domestic customers to switch providers, and it was at this point, with no electricity products to sell, that many price comparison sites closed their doors, at least during that time period. Love Energy Savings however, diversified their product offering, branching out into areas such as water, broadband, telecoms and commercial waste.
This protected the business and its employees during uncertain times, and the company was able to move from strength to strength with their expanded offering. We have been pioneering with our business model throughout the gas crisis, because of our strong relationships with suppliers we were able to get products back on the shelves faster than other TPIs.
New and exciting Brands
Part of the diversification at Love Energy Savings saw the company branch out with sister brands such as Business Electricity Prices. This focuses on a range of Business Electricity providers, and ensures savings for small to medium size businesses looking to maximize profits by switching providers. As a steadily growing company, there are regular exciting developments and expansion across different sectors. In total, Love Energy Savings has 7 Brands, and we are rapidly expanding further.
What’s it like to work for Love Energy Savings?
Love Energy Savings are committed to their employees as well as their customers. We are immensely proud that in August 2018, we were the second-highest rated company for work-life balance in the UK by Glassdoor. Our ethos of looking after our employees wellbeing and happiness has seen initiatives put in place such as our Flexible Flexible working policy. This allows members of staff to set their own working hours and location. It was launched in 2021 as a result of the changing nature of the workplace post-Covid-19 (Coronavirus). The impact has been so positive that the policy is here to stay. Before flexible working, sickness rates at any one time were between 2-3% off a day. Now there are so few the number is nominal.
CEO Phil Foster said that the policy ensures the business retains “talented individuals” for whom conventional hours aren’t practical, stating that the working pattern of nine-to-five, Monday to Friday is “no longer fit for purpose”.
He further explained that allowing staff to work from anywhere in the UK has already proved to be a “huge hit”, as staff in Glasgow, Heathrow, Ipswich and the Lake District have said how their quality of life has “shot up”. Not only can current employees move around the Country, and their quality of life improved as a result, but we’ve been able to hire from further afield for new starters.
“Not only does our Flexible Flexible policy allow our colleagues to work from anywhere in the UK, they can also choose the hours that suit them and their families. Working a nine-to-five when you have childcare commitments can prove a particular challenge, and now parents can easily schedule their hours around school drop-off and pick-up. It also gives colleagues the chance to visit the gym during the day and catch up with life admin,” Foster said.
It’s not only employees who benefit from the policy. A further benefit has been to customers, who are able to contact our energy experts outside of conventional business hours to help them get a better energy deal. This is a key factor for a lot of small to medium size businesses wanting to switch to a better deal, but having limited time during the working day to organize a switch.
Employee Wellbeing at Love Energy Savings
Covid Lockdowns saw Love Energy Savings thinking outside the box in how to ensure employees’ health and wellbeing. One of the initiatives they came up with was virtual workouts, run three times a week by CEO Phil Foster himself, from his own garage, come gym. Employees, and their families were encouraged to take part each morning, and people joined in for a range of reasons. While some wanted to get fit or lose weight, others just wanted a chance to check in virtually with their teammates and have some fun while working remotely.
The initiative proved so popular it continues to this day, and Phil currently runs virtual workouts weekly for employees to join in with. Dubbed the ‘Joe Wicks’ of Bolton, Phil enjoys leading the sessions and the fun team spirit within the company that they result in.
What’s next for Love Energy Savings
There is no doubt that we are still in the midst of the energy crisis in the UK, and for that reason the focus for Love Energy Savings is to continue to assist customers through the volatility of gas prices. We remain committed to helping customers through the crisis, along-side suppliers and Ofgem.
Our strong relationships with suppliers mean that despite the ongoing crisis, we can navigate the murky waters of a volatile market, pass savings down to the customer and help make utilities simple and easy to understand.
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