A Case Study in Growth and Innovation
As the United Kingdom’s only genuine multiservice provider, Utility Warehouse (UW) has become a market leader. With high customer satisfaction rankings and discounted service offerings, its positive reputation and word-of-mouth marketing led the company to reach the one million customer milestone in early 2024, positioning it to take on the country’s legacy energy providers.
This rapid growth has resulted in UW receiving the prestigious honor of being named a DSN Bravo International Growth Award winner for the service sector for the second consecutive year. This accolade is given to the international direct selling company with the highest revenue growth year-over-year in both product and service categories.
In tandem with this momentum and recognition, UW also ascended the DSN Global 100 List, ranking seventh this year—an improvement from its already impressive ranking last year of tenth place. This year’s results are in line with its multi-year trajectory of strong customer growth. This is an extraordinary accomplishment in and of itself, but it’s made all the more astonishing when considering that all of this progress happened in only one country.
Humble Beginnings
Originally a modest company that operated from a pub in Henley-on-Thames just outside of London, then known as Telecom Plus, UW launched its then flagship product the Smart Box, which plugged into phone sockets and routed calls to networks at a cheaper rate, in 1997. Since then, the company has expanded to offer energy, broadband, mobile and insurance products and services to its customers. In addition to built-in savings, UW also streamlines services, allowing customers to stop wasting time and money by combining many services into one single monthly bill, removing the hassle of multiple accounts, passwords and interactions with providers.
Utility Warehouse has even created a way to provide savings opportunities to its customers when they make purchases outside of the UW ecosystem. The UW Cashback Card offers customers up to 10 percent cashback when they use the card through the program’s participating retailers and one percent on other expenditures at non-retail partners depending on the number of UW services taken. Cashback earned is then applied as credit to the customer’s UW bill. More than 430,000 cardholders have already signed up to save through this program.
A Powerful Opportunity
The key to UW’s exponential growth is its word-of-mouth Partner model and competitive pricing. Customers who enjoy savings can become a UW Partner, meaning they refer and sign-up new customers and earn an income in return—up to £250 per referral and a recurring monthly income over time. With more than one million customers and counting, UW is on track to continue this momentum into the future.
“Passing the one million customer milestone was a huge achievement for us and testament to our innovative business model,” said Stuart Burnett, Utility Warehouse Co-Chief Executive Officer. “It shows that people are looking for a genuinely different way to manage their household bills, particularly with the cost-of-living remaining high. Our sights are now firmly set on doubling the size of the business from one to two million customers through a combination of our market-leading services and offering customers the opportunity to earn an extra income as a UW Partner.”
DSN congratulates Utility Warehouse on its phenomenal year and its second Bravo International Growth award.
From the June 2024 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
