On the 17th August, The Daily Mail published another enlightening article supporting the overwelming sense of public concern about spiralling household expenses and highlighting that there has never been a better time to share...talk about...evangelise...sing from the roof tops about the benefits of Utility Warehouse Discount Club Membership and in particular the Company's energy offering.

Excerpts from the Daily Mail...

• Britain's second-biggest energy firm has been slammed for hiking prices nearly 20 per cent just days after revealing soaring profits. The latest price rise means Powergen's six million customers will be paying nearly £500 more this year than they did in 2003.


• Experts warned that one household every 15 seconds is being plunged into 'fuel poverty' due to the industry's massive price rises. This is defined as a household where more than 10 per cent of disposable income is spent on heating and electricity.


• From Monday, the price of gas will go up an eye-watering 18.4 per cent and electricity will go up 9.7 per cent.


• In March, Powergen - recently voted as Britain's most hated big energy firm - raised gas prices by 24.4 per cent and electricity by 18.4 per cent.


• Since 2003, Powergen's seven price rises, including four double-digit rises, are costing its customers a fortune. They are paying an extra £333 for gas and £151 for electricity, a total increase of £484 in just three years, according to the watchdog Energywatch.


• A typical family will now have to fork out more than £1,000 on their energy bills if they use Powergen.


• The announcement brings the total number of double-digit price rises from the country's big six energy suppliers to 12 since January 1st.

Powergens most recent energy price increase brings the total number of double digit price rises by the country's 'big six' energy suppliers to 12 since January 1st, with such price increases attributed to soaring wholesale prices for both gas and electricity, which are said to have incraesed by 87% since January 2005.

Looking at this reference to the 'big six' energy suppliers demonstartes the value of the Utility Warehouse Energy Triple Guarantee. These 'big six' companies account for 98% of UK households and include British Gas, Powergen, NPower, EDF (London Electricity, Seeboard and SWEB), Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Energy.

The Utility Warehouse Triple Guarantee

The Utility Warehouse Triple Guarantee

1. For gas, Thw Utility Warehouse guarantee that their prices will always be cheaper than British Gas, wherever a customer lives in the UK.


2. For electricity, The Utility Warehouse guarantee that their prices will always be cheaper than the prices charged by the regional electricity supplier for the area where a customer lives.


3. For complete peace of mind, The Utility Warehouse guarantees that their prices will always remain competitive compared with the cheapest tariffs available from the “Big 6” suppliers.

The Daily Mail also referred to concerns expressed by The charity Help the Aged over fears that pensioners will be the hit hardest by the recent rises. Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs, said: "Many older people will struggle to afford to pay their energy bills and still have money left over to afford basics like food and clothes."

Also referenced were the fears that up to four million households are now in fuel poverty, which is nearly double the Government's previous estimate and that Consumer groups continue to urge customers to shop around to get a cheaper deal which could be saving them up to £260 a year.

Utility Warehouse Gas & Electricity

Labels: service-news

posted by Jeremy Tromans at 8/23/2006 02:36:00 PM   

During the last week, both The Investors Chronicle and The Independent have picked up on the upturn with key financials at Telecom plus Plc (The Utility Warehouse), with The Investors Chronicle declaring “business is in good shape, with the potential to tap into a massive market helped by the trend to bundle utility services” and The Independent stating that Telecom plus is "worth a punt".

The Independent - 14 August 2006
Small Talk: Time to ring up Telecom plus for a bargain buy

In this article, Michael Jivkov of The Independent highlighted that during the last two years Telecom plus shares have lost 70% of their value and that following the Company's deal with nPower back in February, the Company has returned to profitability, with a dividend being announced at its full-year results in June.

A recovery is on the cards for Telecom plus. Chris Mills, the shrewd small-cap specialist who runs Atlantic Value LLP fund, certainly thinks so. He has quietly built up a 4 per cent stake in the company. Telecom plus, which provides electricity and gas as well and mobile, fixed-line and broadband services, has seen its shares drop from 400p in 2004 to close at 121p on Friday because of losses from the energy side of the business. It had failed to hedge its supply contracts and when prices soared, it was locked into contracts to supply gas at too cheap a price.

Also highlighted was the Company's unique referral system for attracting new customers which is much less expensive than traditional advertising and marketing models. Telecom plus also has a fully integrated customer services billing system, which means lower admin costs, and boasts a low "churn" rate of just 1.5 per cent compared with an industry average of 5 per cent.

According to Michael Jivkov, KBC Peel Hunt, the group's broker, expects it to make a profit of £8.3m this year. By 2008, this should have risen to more than £10m, leaving Telecom plus trading at just 10 times earnings, and making its stock worth a punt.

Labels: press-articles

posted by Jeremy Tromans at 8/16/2006 02:56:00 PM   

The Telecom plus management team includes experienced and professional executives who are leaders in the fields of telecommunications, finance, information technology, operations and customer service.

The Hon Charles Wigoder, Chief Executive

Charles Wigoder qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG in 1984 and was subsequently employed by Kleinwort Securities as an investment analyst in the media and communication sectors. Between 1985 and 1988, he was head of corporate finance and development at Carlton Communications plc and then Quadrant Group plc. In March 1988, he left Quadrant Group to set up The Peoples Phone Company plc, which was subsequently purchased by Vodafone for £77 million in December 1996. He joined the Company in February 1998.

Peter Nutting, Non-Executive Chairman

Peter Nutting has been Chairman of a number of public and private companies. He was a member of the Council of Lloyds between 1991 and 1998 and Deputy-Chairman of the Lloyds Regulatory Board from 1992 to 1994. He is currently Chairman of Hampden Agencies Ltd. He is a Director of Jove Investment Trust plc, Azuran plc, European Monthly Income Trust Ltd, ALM
Ltd and a number of other companies. He joined Telecom plus in April 1997.

Stephen Davis, Finance Director

Stephen is a Chartered Accountant. He joined BDO Stoy Hayward, the UK’s 6th largest accounting and business advisory practice, from university in 1983, and became a partner in 1991. Since 1995, he had been significantly involved in leading the firm, initially as head of a strategic business unit and from 2000, on the main Board, with direct responsibility for the London office. He joined Telecom plus in April 2005 and in addition to heading the finance
function Stephen is involved in many of the day-to-day operational areas of the business.

Clifford Wetherall, Group Director of IT and Billing

Clifford is an experienced IT professional with a PhD in software engineering. He was responsible for developing one of the UK’s leading database management systems, used by many of the country’s largest businesses and UK government departments. He joined the telecommunications industry in 1988 and from 1994 to 1997 was head of IT at Peoples Phone. He then worked for a mobile phone service provider in The Netherlands and a multibillion dollar telecommunications billing company in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Clifford joined Telecom plus in 1998 where he has developed IT systems for all aspects of the business including a sophisticated multi-service billing system that is the envy of the industry.

Wayne Coupland, Group Business Development Director

Wayne joined us from One2One where he held a senior management position and brings a wealth of experience to Telecom plus. Wayne is responsible for the introduction and project management of new services.

Malcolm Wolpert, Group Director Human Resources

Malcolm has 30 years experience in Customer Service, 20 of which were spent in the telecommunications industry. He joined Peoples Phone in 1990 as Customer Services Director with responsibility for over 200 customer service staff servicing over 400,000 customers.

Malcolm joined Telecom plus in 1998 as Customer Services Director and subsequently acquired many other roles including Director of Human Resources with additional responsibility for our business Customer Service Team supporting the Business Club and TML.

In March 2005 Malcolm was appointed Group Director of Human Resources concentrating fully on our Human Resources and Personnel functions.

Andy McWilliams, Executive Services Director

Andy joined Telecom plus at the beginning of 2005 from Ocado the successful internet
business where he was, as part of the original start-up team, responsible for launching their national home delivery team and customer contact centre. Prior to Ocado Andy had a number of senior roles managing large customer facing workforces.

At Telecom plus Andy is responsible for our 16,000 strong Distributor channel, the College of Excellence Training Programme and the head office team that supports our sales network.
Andy gained an MBA at Henley Management College in 2001.

Ravi Khanna, Customer Service Director

Ravi has spent his entire career working in customer relationship management. After an initial burst in IT recruitment account management, Ravi worked his way up the call centre food chain, and arrived at Telecom plus with extensive customer service management experience gained at Rover Cars, Britvic Soft Drinks and Valpak (Environmental Consultancy). Within a
few months of his joining the Company, the Utility Warehouse came top in a customer satisfaction survey of suppliers of line rental and calls. Under Ravi’s stewardship our customer service continues to set the benchmark for utilities providers across the country.

John Levin, Non-Executive Director

John Levin graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree in Business Information Systems. He is involved in the insurance industry in the United Kingdom and specialised in information technology solutions. In 1992 John joined IGI Insurance Company Limited and was the Managing Director from March 1995 to March 1997 and remains a director of all the IGI Group trading companies. He is a founder of Telecom plus and joined the board in April 1997.

Keith Stella, Non-Executive Director

Keith Stella is a Senior Partner in the Corporate Finance department with City solicitors, Berwin Leighton Paisner, and provides legal advice to a wide range of clients including a number of listed public companies. He joined Telecom plus in July 2000.

Dominic Wheatley, Non-Executive Director

After several years at an advertising agency, in 1984 Dominic Wheatley cofounded Domark Limited, a software entertainment developer and publisher for the home computer market, which was acquired by Eidos plc in 1995. He served as Chief Operating Officer of Eidos plc and Chief Executive of Eidos Inc in the USA until 1997. He is Chairman of Highway Capital plc and Kuju plc, Chief Executive of Bright Things plc and a Director of Statpro plc. He joined
Telecom plus in May 2000.

Richard Michell, Non-Executive Director

Richard Michell is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. From 1981 to 1988, he was Finance Manager and Company Secretary for Geosource UK Ltd, a subsidiary of Geosource Inc, a leading US oil exploration company. From 1988 to 1996, he was Treasurer of Sony Broadcast and Communication Ltd, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of Japan. He joined Telecom plus in April 1997 as Finance Director also covering the role of Executive Services Director. Richard retired in 2005 but retains his position as a member of the Board of Directors.

Labels: company-information

posted by Jeremy Tromans at 8/11/2006 04:09:00 PM   

Telecom plus PLC was incorporated in 1996 and began operations in 1997, providing a unique range of low cost telephony services to householders and small to medium-sized businesses, a market that until then had not generally benefited from the discounts or special offers available from the large telecoms suppliers. The company’s shares have been traded on the London Stock Exchange since June 1997.

Telecom plus was the first company from outside the Energy Industry to receive a full licence from Ofgem to supply gas and electricity to the domestic market. A huge endorsement of the systems, management and financial strength of the business.

In 2002 Telecom plus launched the Utility Warehouse, an exciting new brand to encompass all its great value services. In 2003, this became the Utility Warehouse Discount Club.

Through the Utility Warehouse Discount Club, Telecom plus supply customers with essential services used by virtually everyone, so the opportunity for growth is almost unlimited.
The Company's objective is to save their customers money by giving them significantly better value on services they were previously receiving from monopoly suppliers like BT, British Gas and the regional electricity companies. Telecom plus use the collective buying power of lots of individual small users to negotiate bulk-buying deals with major suppliers, passing the benefit back to their customers.

Currently there is an opportunity to make money simply by recommending to potential customers a way of saving money on their telephone bills, internet access, mobile phone bills, gas usage and electricity usage – saving money on services they are already using. In the future, Telecom plus intend to offer their customers savings on other essential services.

The UK market for these services is worth over £17 billion per annum, so the opportunity is truly enormous. By concentrating on a range of essential services used by virtually everyone, the opportunity for growth is almost unlimited. And by combining this strategy with the immensely successful strategy of personal recommendation, Telecom plus has created one of the UK’s most exciting business opportunities. The opportunity exists to build a substantial and growing income over the coming years, working with an ethical British company that is revolutionising the way people pay for their essential services.

Timing is everything – and the time is now! A few years ago, deregulation had not occurred; in a few years time itwill be an old story. Deregulation means that customers can now choose an alternative to the old monopoly suppliers for many of their services, and with this is an opportunity to be in at the beginning of this change.

Labels: company-information

posted by Jeremy Tromans at 8/11/2006 04:05:00 PM   

According to a Which? customer satisfaction survey, whilst the 'big three' broadband providers fall short on customer satisfaction, 64 per cent of Utility Warehouse broadband customers who were surveyed reported being very satisfied with their service.

Interestingly, only 34 per cent of BT's customers, 25 per cent of AOL's customers and 47 per cent of Telewest customers were very satisfied with the service they received.

Also of note is that none of the cheapest broadband providers were at the top of the table as they didn't do so well for customer service. the 'free' broadband services Which? looked at - Sky, the Carphone Warehouse and Orange - require customers to subscribe to another paid-for service as well as tying themselves in for a lengthy time period.

Utility Warehouse broadband

Labels: service-news

posted by Jeremy Tromans at 8/03/2006 01:39:00 PM   

At Express Day this year, Telecom plus will be announcing important changes to their services as well as details of an amazing new promotion. If you are evaluating the Telecom plus business, attending Express Day is your opportunity to hear these announcements, plus you will receive a FREE pack of new marketing materials to take full advantage of these announcements immediately.

There are only a limited number of seats still available for Express Day. If you haven’t already done so, we strongly recommend that you reserve your place today.

You can book for Express Day by calling Jeremy Tromans on 0800 458 0623.

Tickets are priced at just £20 and include morning and afternoon refreshments, along with a buffet lunch

- Hear first hand about the Company's exciting new services
- Receive a free marketing materials pack
- New promotion with extra benefits for Distributors who attendExpress Day
- Free registration opportunity for new ID’s
- Meet senior management team.
- Meet and network with the Company's most successful Utility Warehouse distributors.

Ticket price includes tea/coffee on arrival and lunch.

Pre-Event Presentations

Four more reasons to attend Express Day…and to book now!
Telecom plus have arranged a great start to Express Day this year by scheduling FOUR presentations which start promptly at 10am and end at 10:45am in plenty of time for you to be seated for the main event. Last year’s two pre-event presentations were an outstanding success…with standing room only!

Four of our top leaders will run the following training sessions:

1. Recruitment: Anytime. Any Place. Anyone!Presented by National Marketing Director Clive Leach

2. Customer Gathering + Win a Mini
Presented by National Marketing Director Steve Critchley
Learn how to turn your customers into raving fans and understand the art of getting more referrals than you need.

3. Growing Your Cheque
Presented by Marketing Director Jimmy Chapman
Retire in 5 years- is that true? Yes if you want to! After just 5 years in this amazing business, Jimmy Chapman tells you how!

4. Goal Setting
Presented by Marketing Director Stefan Longworth
Goals. There's no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them…there's no telling what you can do when you believe in them…there's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.

You can book for Express Day by calling Jeremy Tromans on 0800 458 0623.

Tickets are priced at just £20 and include morning and afternoon refreshments, along with a buffet lunch

Labels: press-articles, seminar-news, service-news

posted by Jeremy Tromans at 8/02/2006 01:13:00 PM