Delays to smart metering rollout hit Bglobal
SMART metering firm BGlobal saw sales slump by 37% to £18.4m in the year to March 31 (2011: £29m) as it installed fewer meters, but the firm argued that it had kept a tight control on costs and had increased the amount of recurring revenues built through service agreements.
The Darwen-based company declared a pre-tax loss of £870,123 (2011: £721,959) before a one-off credit of £1.5m due to an adjustment in the amount it will pay for Utiligroup. This pushed the firm back into a profit of £590,030.
Chief executive Tim Jackson-Smith said the slowdown in revenues had been expected “as a result of the uncertainty around the mass rollout of smart metering in the UK”.
However, progress has recently been made on this front, with the government publishing technical specs for new smart meters in April. An initial version of this was ratified by the EC last week. BGlobal has already developed a dual fuel meter which complies with these standards, which is currently being tested ahead of a formal launch.
The company said that the data services side of the business, which provides customers with greater knowledge about the energy they use, had increased by around a third to £3.35m (£2.23m).
It also said that cost-cutting measures had allowed it to trim almost £2m from its overheads.
BGlobal argued that government moves to shake-up the utilities sector in a bid to increase competition was likely to provide opportunities over the longer-term.
Jackson-Smith said there had been a lot of interest in the “supplier in a box” system developed by subsidiary Utiligroup by potential new entrants into the market. The group is also still in talks with a major retailer looking to enter into the energy market.
“Their plans have been delayed and they now intend to launch in 2013 and we are discussing with the business the products and services we will need to provide to enable it to enter into the UK market,” he added.
