‘Utility Warehouse will go bust’ was a view expressed in an online forum recently. Now everyone is entitled to his or her opinion but often a lot of views expressed are based on a lack of information. I cannot see Utility Warehouse going under. When you go on the various forums it seems that Utility warehouse divides opinion. Some are for and some are against. Some have good experiences with the company and some have bad experiences. And that I think colours their view. Something we are nearly all guilty of. However when it comes to the stability of the company it is not these personal unsubstantiated opinions that count but rather the facts.
The fact is that Utility Warehouse is operated by Telecom plus PLC, which was founded in nineteen ninety-seven. Since that time the company has enjoyed phenomenal growth, and has been fully listed on the London Stock Exchange since the year two thousand. The company can be found on the London Stock Exchange.
Being a public company it has to be open to public scrutiny. It is a fact that when you read any comment in the informed financial press the viability of the company is never questioned. In fact it is often tipped as an investment opportunity because of the dividends it pays to its shareholders. Shareholders who hold more than two thousand five hundred shares who are members of the Utility Warehouse Discount Club receive a credit equal to ten percent of their total annual spend with the company. Utility Warehouse has also been endorsed by leading consumer organisations such as Which? as well as receiving many favourable write ups in the press.
It is the UK’s only fully integrated provider of a wide range of competitively priced utility services, such as gas, electricity, phone services and Internet provision. The way the company expands its customer base is a bit different from the other leading utility providers in that the company does not advertise. Instead it relies on ‘word of mouth’ recommendation by existing satisfied customers. In a recent survey over ninety four percent of the Utility Warehouse discount club customers or members said they would recommend the company to a friend.
In its recent half-year trading statement that was issued on the first of October 2010 it stated that it had a continued solid organic growth, improving quality of earnings and strong results were expected. As for the cash balance it was given as eighteen million pounds.
Commenting on current trading, Andrew Lindsay, Chief Executive said: “I am delighted to report another period of solid organic growth in customer, distributor and service numbers during the first half of the current financial year, with a further improvement in the quality of the customers we are attracting. Our ongoing focus on enhancing membership benefits can be expected to deliver continued organic growth and improved customer retention, and I look forward to announcing our half-yearly results in November.”
One can never say what will happen in the future but I think that if the person who commented on the forum was to make themselves aware of the facts they would revise their view, ‘that Utility Warehouse will go bust.’