Eon - Building a major new Sustainable Energy Business

Eon - Building a major new Sustainable Energy Business

The Client

E.ON is the world's largest investor-owned power and gas company. In the UK, E.ON is a leading energy brand with over 8 million domestic, SME and industrial customer accounts. E.ON is also a major global investor in renewable technology and low carbon generation.

The Situation

By 2007, companies in the UK retail electricity and gas markets faced two major challenges.

First, intense price competition combined with sharply rising wholesale prices was creating significant pressure on margins. Secondly the entire industry was under duress from customers, government and other stakeholders to respond to climate change and in particular to the increased demand from business customers for energy from sustainable sources.

As a trusted adviser to the E.ON leadership team for over 7 years, Edengene was asked to develop a strategic response to this rapidly developing situation.

The Solution

Working with a dedicated E.ON team, Edengene analysed the strategic options for a sustainable energy solutions business, developing a compelling suite of offerings for customers supported by a convincing investment case. They also designed the operational business and supported it during the early stages through sales and business development support.

Identifying the right strategy:

Focusing on the needs of end customers, the joint team identifi ed the requirement for a comprehensive end-to-end solution. This ranged from advisory and design to complete operational lifecycle management of the generation solution with fi nance and technical support services.

Designing the operational business:

Bringing this strategy to life required a detailed operational business plan and design, specifying the infrastructure and processes in addition to building the necessary capability to secure market leadership. Edengene combined intelligent marketing and sales strategies with an innovative consulting sales engine to deliver advice and generate both direct and pull-through revenues.

Launching the business:

E.ON Sustainable Energy Services (SES) was launched in late 2007. Edengene remained key to the business launch, acting as interim management for a unique sales-focused consulting group and providing hands-on business development and sales support to build a strong pipeline of clients and deals.
 

The Results

The SES business is meeting its sales projections, and has a healthy forward contract pipeline including portfolio deals with major property developers. It is on track to become a business generating very signifi cant revenue to the group over the next five years. In September 2008, SES was nominated for Management Today's Best Green Business annual awards.

"Edengene were instrumental in constructing the foundations of Sustainable Energy Solutions and worked extremely well as part of the leadership team." Tony Galloni, Head of SES