Partner Article

npower ends auto-renewal contracts for SMEs

In a challenging energy market, npower has today announced brand new measures that simplify the way in which SMEs choose their energy. Three new price plans mark a completely new way of contracting for energy supply for npower, bringing an end to auto-renewal and providing businesses with more flexibility than ever before.

“We realise that in today’s market you need to innovate around the customer and their needs,” said Phil Scholes, SME Sales & Marketing Director at npower. “Due to this we have made our energy contracts as flexible as possible for SMEs, helping them to choose a simple contract that suits them and their specific needs at a given time. From today, businesses can choose from two different plans based on what is important to their business, whether that is the ability to budget long-term or the flexibility to change contracts at short notice. We will be introducing a third plan later this year, to complete our new suite of products and to coincide with our commitment not to auto-renew existing customers on fixed term contracts from November 2014.”

The three new plans from npower are:

Fixed – Offers businesses npower’s most competitive energy rates as a fixed unit price for one, two or three years.This benefits businesses by providing greater certainty around energy costs, giving them control of their energy budget for the duration of the contract.

Variable – Ideal for businesses that value contract flexibility and freedom over fixed prices. Rates are reviewed quarterly to ensure they reflect market conditions. Through the open-ended plan, businesses benefit from the freedom to exit the contract at any point with just 30 days’ notice. We have been trialling this product and it is proving to be very popular with landlords, new start-ups and seasonal businesses.

Flexible – Bringing an end to auto-renewal on contracts, the Flexible plan gives customers who have come to the end of their Fixed contract, but who do not want to commit to a long-term plan, a fixed rate for one year. They can exit the plan at any time subject to providing 30 days’ notice.

The Fixed and Variable plans are available from today to new npower customers and can be offered to existing customers who are in their renewal window.

Phil Scholes added: “We are committed to creating energy management solutions that help UK businesses grow. The launch of these new plans marks the end of the sale of auto-renewal contracts for npower, demonstrating another step we are taking to provide our SME customers with more choice in how they manage their energy costs.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Phil Scholes .