The creation of npower hometeam

The creation of a new a new business, npower home team, which is on course to achieve revenue of £250 million within 5 years

The Client

npower is the UK arm of the leading global energy company RWE, and is positioned as a challenger brand in a home energy market previously dominated by the ex-monopoly British Gas.

The Situation

In 2005, npower faced an uphill battle to grow value in an increasingly commoditised market for power and energy provision. British Gas had taken advantage of its former monopoly position to build a home services business (installing, maintaining and insuring domestic gas-fired heating systems) earning £800m revenue at good margins from UK consumers.

npower set itself a growth objective of developing a challenger Home Energy Services business in the UK. The company’s Head of Residential Products was passionate about the opportunity for a branded UK business to take on British Gas and fill the gap between a monopolistic incumbent and cheaper, but less trusted, independent local suppliers. She was also aware, however, of skills gaps within her team in experience and expertise in building new businesses, made worse by severe resource constraints within npower.

The Solution

Edengene assembled a multi-skilled team at short notice, which quickly developed a competitive strategy and robust business case during an initial project phase. This provided the strategic rationale for entering the home energy services market, along with a differentiated proposition for customers, a strong operational model, an effective go-to-market strategy, and an implementation roadmap.

With a compelling proposal and financial case for significant investment, the team was able to gain approval to develop a detailed operational plan for building the business. We collaborated closely with the core energy supply business during this period to ensure a pragmatic build schedule and realistic financial projections.

In the subsequent final phase of our work, we were able to contribute our experience in building ventures for other large corporates, providing interim management capability for the early-stage development of the business. This involved building the service, deploying a sales and marketing strategy, recruiting a management team, trialling the service and implementing the initial regional roll-out.

The Results

“hometeam” is projected to achieve revenue of £250 million within 5 years, and has put npower in pole position to challenge British Gas’ dominance in the UK market, meeting our client’s objective of developing a synergistic growth business at good margins to sit alongside its existing core energy supply operation.

We continue to work closely with npower to develop the business as it reaches critical mass.