Chris Dawson, owner of The Range Home, Leisure and Garden chain of stores, as well as an award-winning waste management company and an interior design and shop-fitting operation, plans to enter the national energy market with an internet-based utilities provider.
Speaking to The Herald from Barbados, the millionaire businessman said his new project would be launched in two weeks’ time.
Customers will be able to sign up to the service on The Range’s website and the utilities company will trade under the same name.
Details will also be available over the phone and in Range shops.
Mr Dawson said: “It’s the obvious thing to do. I have a big retail operation, and this fits with the brand. We’ve got access to millions of customers.”
Mr Dawson said his energy company would be unique because it would update its prices far faster and more often than existing energy suppliers, to exploit changes in the market.
“We buy massive blocks of gas and electricity and can change our prices extremely quickly,” he said.
Mr Dawson said his company would not be drilling for gas or actually generating electricity, simply buying the energy on the open market as cheaply as possible and passing on the saving to customers, who would get the cheapest possible price every day.
The businessman said there were enough savings to be made to bring bills down and also make him a profit at the same time.
The system, which relies on sophisticated software to change prices automatically, has been tested using both staff at The Range and members of the public.
Mr Dawson said: “We tested it on 100 people and 100 bills were reduced.”
Test customers had also found the system very easy to sign up for and use.
The new company will be rolled out nationally with an advertising campaign and run from The Range’s Plymouth headquarters by just five or six people.
“You don’t need a lot of people because the system’s so sophisticated,” Mr Dawson said, adding that he hoped the energy company would soon be ready to start selling to other businesses as well.
Dubbed ‘Plymouth’s deluxe Del Boy’, Chris Dawson launched a ‘pre-paid credit card’ with MasterCard earlier in December for customers of his 41 The Range stores, bringing a further 20 jobs to Plymouth.
This week the city-based entrepreneur has been enjoying a trip to Barbados, but it’s not what most people would call a holiday; he takes a laptop and two phones to the beach.
“I’m still working, but it’s in the sun,” he said.
The Range reportedly enjoyed its best week for 20 years before Christmas.
“I’m going to make this a massive brand,” Mr Dawson said.
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