Households are set to use about 10% less energy over the winter this year compared to normal levels as customer support ends, according to the boss of Paypoint.
The business, which allows customers to load funds onto energy prepayment meters, said £246 million worth of Energy Bills Support Scheme Vouchers had been redeemed over the winter. That still means around 18% of customers did not use their vouchers. CEO Nick Wiles says this was despite suppliers reaching out to customers “five or six times” to remind them that support was available.
Wiles told the Standard that “consumers have really budgeted their consumption of energy well” since that support ended in June, though Summer months are not the best test of behaviour going forward.
He said consumption is down around 15-20% at the moment, and is likely to be down by around 10% in the winter.
Paypoint also faces a lawsuit, filed last week, from fuel poverty charity Global 365, which argues PayPoint’s dominant market position has stopped it from creating a cheaper rival. Wiles says Global 365 “misunderstands” the energy market.
Shares in Paypoint are up 4.5% to 489.6p today as the business announced profit growth to £61.3 million in the year to the end of March. It also said revenue was up by nearly 20% in the three months to the end of June.
““This has been another positive quarter for the PayPoint Group where we have delivered further net revenue growth across the group and continued the strong performance seen in FY23,” Wiles said. “Our enhanced platform and expanded capabilities across the group, combined with our business-wide partnership philosophy and intensity of execution, give the Board confidence in delivering further progress in the year and meeting expectations.
