Octopus Acquires 70,000 Customers as Engie Pulls Out of UK Domestic Energy Market

Renewable supplier Octopus Energy has acquired French energy giant Engie’s UK residential supply business.

The deal adds 70,000 new customers to Octopus’ rolls, making the green supplier one of the largest challenger brands, with 1.4 million accounts, around 5% of the market.

A year ago Octopus had just half a million customers but has grown rapidly, largely through acquisitions. The acquisition of Engie is its sixth deal in two years and follows takeovers of Co-op Energy, M&S Energy and Affect Energy. Octopus also gained 100,00 customers following the collapse of Iresa in August 2018.

Octopus will supply the clean energy for London Power, a new supplier for the capital launched by the Mayor last week.

And its tentacles have also reached beyond the UK, to acquire German green energy supplier 4hundred and to partner with solar cell maker Hanwha, as the Korean company ventures into the Australian energy market.

CEO Greg Jackson said in September that Octopus was an “expansion phase.” 

This week he reiterated the company’s commitment to green energy.

“Octopus Energy is investing to drive the green energy revolution – our technology enables a lower cost transition and our rapid growth means we can bring the benefits of cheaper, greener, smarter energy to ever more customers,” he said.

“It is an honour to acquire ENGIE’s UK home energy supply operations, enabling Engie to focus on their expanding services in other sectors whilst we bring their customers Octopus’s renowned service, pricing and technology.”

Engie, partly owned by the French state, has made a “strategic decision” to withdraw from the UK residential supply market, less than three years after launching the arm in May 2017.

Engie said it would be focusing on helping businesses and local authorities make the zero carbon transition.

Nicola Lovett, CEO of Engie in the UK & Ireland, said: “Our decision to exit the UK residential energy supply market is driven by our focus on activities closely aligned to our UK strategy of making zero carbon happen for businesses and local authorities. Octopus is a strong, well established business and a good fit for our UK residential retail customers.

“Engie remains deeply committed to the UK and we will continue to invest and play a leading role in the UK’s journey to a net zero future.”

Octopus recently trimmed the cost of its standard variable tariff by 2%, making it £170 cheaper then the current level of the energy price cap and savings its customers an average of £80 a year.