Eon announces 400 job losses in its energy services arm

[Amethyst]

Eon announces 400 job losses in its energy services arm

Written by: Roger Milne | 17 September 2008
Eon UK has announced plans to cut 400 jobs, the first sign that the credit crunch is biting on the energy industry.
The company plans to lose around 10 per cent of its energy services arm. This employs 4,400 staff in metering, connections and the installation of energy-efficiency measures and boilers. The cuts will be made over the next few months.
Eon said the reductions would be made by voluntary redundancies wherever possible and that it would offer counselling and support to those affected. It will also consider redeploying staff where possible.
Paul Golby, chief executive of Eon UK, said: "This was not an easy decision for us to take, but this is the first step as we take a long hard look at our costs." Golby said that he could not rule out further job losses.
A spokesman for the company said the energy services arm had been hit particularly hard by the recent downturn in the UK property market. Much of its work involved making connections to new housing developments.
"If people aren't building the houses, it is bound to have a knock-on effect on the business," he said.


source: Eon announces 400 job losses in its energy services arm - UK - News : Utility Week

[Amethyst]

Re: Eon announces 400 job losses in its energy services arm

From ''a source''

A contact of mine that currently works in the corporate side of Eon has revealed the following information

We have recently been told that we need to clear off our books, before April 1st 2009 £50,000,000. The current unpaid debt within this arena stands at a whopping £180,000,000. To clear that amount of debt in 7 months would mean collecting £1.7million a week, this does not include new billed debt, which is obviously rising all the time, this also needs to be cleared above and beyond the £1.7mil. They currently renew customers twice a year, one round of sales is done in October, the other in April. They have now stopped any new sales or renewal of contracts being done in October, which means the loss of a significant amount of customers. They have recently lost the supply of around 22,000 sites (over a few different customers) because they simply couldn’t quote prices as low as other suppliers such as EDF. This all leaves the possibility of redundancy quite high, the customers they will be due to renew in April will collide with the cut off date for the debt to be cleared, if the debt isn’t cleared, it will leave it easier to get rid of the customers left to renew in April and shut the business. All they would then have to concentrate on is clearing out the customers that are left.

The debt has come about from 3 system changes, where bills have been delayed for 5 years and more in some cases, disputes on bills, or simply non payment.

There are around 150 staff in this arena that concentrate on billing just group customers, people such as Mothercare and Tesco.

[Amethyst]

Re: Eon announces 400 job losses in its energy services arm

Also see British Gas sell off their old debt portfolio - Legal Beagles

[Tools]

Re: Eon announces 400 job losses in its energy services arm

Well funny you should mention that because Centrica who own British Gas have agreed to buy a 25% share of British Energy, recently bought for 12.5 billion by french giants EDF.

Taken from Centrica muscles in on EDF deal - Business News, Business - The Independent

Subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, EDF, which is 85% owned by the French government, will take over British Energy's eight nuclear power plants in the UK. It also plans to build four new reactors in Britain.

Centrica's proposed deal, worth about £3.1bn, will give it the right to 25 per cent of the uncontracted output of British Energy's existing generators and 25 per cent of its profits. It will also be able to participate in EDF's power plant building, and intends to fund its acquisition through debt and equity.

I was told about EDF's plans to build the four new reactors on a recent visit to Heysham Nuclear Power Station, but they knew nothing about the proposed buyout. I was also told that for each reactor, it would need approximately 200 wind turbines to generate the equivalent output. He also said that despite our imports of cut price coal, we do have our own coal seams that would provide enough for the next 200 years at least. The reason we import so much coal is that it costs too much to remove it from the seams. Nuclear energy is far more efficient and cost effective and contrary to scare stories is 'greener' than fossil produced energy.

[Tools]

Re: Eon announces 400 job losses in its energy services arm

The debt has come about from 3 system changes, where bills have been delayed for 5 years and more in some cases, disputes on bills, or simply non payment.

5 years? phew!!!