Exclusive: Multi-utility firms are the future for small businesses, says Everflow boss Josh Gill
One-stop shops are the best way forward for small businesses (SMEs) looking to have their utility needs met, argued the founder and chief executive of the UK’s fastest growing water supplier.
Josh Gill, chief executive of Everflow, told City A.M. utility firms that can provide multiple services is the future for SMEs, which will significantly cut down administrative requirements while potentially providing cheaper bills.
He said: “I think multi utilities is the future of SMEs for two reasons. One, consolidating all of those utilities with one supplier I think saves customers a lot of time. I also think we can offer bigger discounts.”
Gill cited internal data revealing that convenience and discount were equally important issues for the firm’s customers, which surprised him as his assumption was SMEs would be chiefly “cost driven”.
“As a country, we’ve become used to kind of convenience, and convenience has become a much bigger driver in decision making than it used to be,” he mused.
Everflow is a business-focused water supplier, founded by Gill in 2015, with the aim of fixing a lot of problems he saw in the B2B utility market, including a lack of customer service and insufficient technology to help drive down water usage across businesses.
To achieve that end, the firm has completely separated its profit margin from the amount of utility that a company uses, for both water and waste.
Currently, the company provides services to 70,000 customers, which includes both companies with multiple premises alongside microbusinesses and small traders.
Its last 12 months have been characterized by rapid expansion, with the company enjoying a near 50 per cent boost in customers over the past 12 months.
Earlier this year, it launched a waste management division, and intends to enter telecoms in 2023 and the domestic energy sector in 2024 to provide a multi-utility offering to customers.
Commenting on the challenge of Everflow’s future expansion plans, he said: “Our challenge as we go into those multiple utilities is translating initial customer demand to actual buying. We started to see the traction already in the in the waste business that we’ve just launched with our customers already taking waste from us as well. So, that’s quite exciting.”