High-Flying Year for Electric Kiwi

15 November 2018

News release

Deloitte Fast 50 Win Tops Off High-Flying Year for Electric Kiwi

Electric Kiwi has come a long way fast since three school friends started the company four years ago.

In addition to creating the Hour of Power, taking on the New Zealand electricity market and winning a host of awards, the company has now been honoured with a prestigious Deloitte Fast 50 award.

At a ceremony in Auckland last night, it won the prize for Fastest Growing Retail or Consumer Products Business, having already landed the Auckland regional prize in September.

Chief executive Luke Blincoe says the win is an acknowledgement that Electric Kiwi’s disruption of an established industry is much-needed and appreciated by consumers who have saved millions of dollars overall since the company started.

“Electric Kiwi was started because Kiwis deserved a better deal on power. The old incumbents had been making far too much money from hard-working New Zealanders for far too long.

“Our goal is to keep them honest by being more efficient and doing things smarter. At our core is a desire to make life better for Kiwis and we’ve already saved NZ families and their friends more than $10 million.”

Blincoe says the company started with a couple of people in a small room who built the systems to deliver both savings and an awesome customer experience. “We signed our first customers in December 2014 and now we have 31,000, and the numbers keep growing month by month. Our staff is up to 25 and we recently moved offices to accommodate our ongoing growth.”

He says the three school mates Julian Kardos, Huia Burt and Phill Anderson saw an opportunity to offer Kiwis a better deal by simplifying electricity and leveraging technology. That focus on technology means Electric Kiwi has been able to automate many of the processes behind retailing electricity, giving it more time and effort to spend on customers.

“We have a straight-up, Kiwi way of doing business and this, along with our empowered and passionate team, has led to us win awards for our service. All of that leads to referral and growth. We don’t do old fashioned sales like door-to-door selling or any cold calling whatsoever. We focus on the digitally savvy Kiwis who like what we have to offer.”

Looking to the future, Blincoe says: “No one is just going to let us take their customers, so we are focused on getting better in every respect. If we execute our plans, continue to innovate, continue to deliver for our customers, then we believe we can keep growing at current rates.

“The market is really interesting at the moment and we see even more opportunity emerging as the government looks at ways to ensure that all Kiwis can get a fair deal.

“We are better placed than most players in our industry, as our focus is on customers and what they want. We have no bias to protect the status quo because we don’t own any assets. All of the incumbent industry players have a bias in their commentary about disruption, based on which part of the current system they seek to protect. As long as we keep listening to, and delivering for our customers, we are well placed to innovate as opportunities present themselves.”

He says the biggest hurdle facing Electric Kiwi is allocating resources to all the ideas the team has to make things even better, without compromising the customer experience.

ENDS

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