Utilitywise was a British energy consultancy company based in

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newcastl ...

, United Kingdom. The business had operations across the UK at their North Tyneside base,

Redditch Redditch is a town, and local government district, in north-east Worcestershire, England, approximately south of Birmingham. The district has a population of 85,000 as of 2019. In the 19th century, it became the international centre for the ...

Bury St Edmonds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

and

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, as well as 150 staff in the Czech Republic.

History

Utilitywise was founded in 2006 in

Team Valley Team Valley is a trading estate located in Gateshead. It is home to the Retail World retail park, with many large, international companies are based in the area's trading estate. In 2017, there were approximately 700 companies on the estate, empl ...

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

by Geoffrey Thompson as Commercial Utility Brokers Limited. In 2010 the business was rebranded as Utilitywise. When Utilitywise entered the

Alternative Investment Market AIM (formerly the Alternative Investment Market) is a sub-market of the London Stock Exchange that was launched on 19 June 1995 as a replacement to the previous Unlisted Securities Market (USM) that had been in operation since 1980. It allows ...

in 2012 at 60p per share the ''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

'' described the business as "the belle of the ball". In 2013 the company won the AIM's "Best Use of AIM Award" and in 2014 won their "Company of the Year Award". In 2012 the business moved from

Jarrow Jarrow ( or ) is a town in South Tyneside in the county of Tyne and Wear, England. It is east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is situated on the south bank of the River Tyne, about from the east coast. It is home to the southern portal of the Tyne ...

South Shields South Shields () is a coastal town in South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the south bank of the mouth of the River Tyne. Historically, it was known in Roman times as Arbeia, and as Caer Urfa by Early Middle Ages. According to the 20 ...

, then in 2014 as the business was further expanding they relocated to the

Cobalt Business Park Cobalt Park is a business park located in North Tyneside, England. It is one of the largest business parks in the United Kingdom. History Initially known as Hadrian Business Park plans for the area were devised the early 1990s by the Tyne and ...

in North Tyneside in the largest North East office leasing deal since 2009, taking 77,632 sq ft of space. By 2014 the company's market value rose above £200m and had 800 employees. One of the company's investors was the high-profile

Neil Woodford Neil Russell Woodford CBE (born March 1960) is a former fund manager and the founding partner of the defunct Woodford Investment Management. Early life Woodford was born in March 1960. He was brought up in Berkshire and attended Maidenhead Gra ...

who owned 29%. In 2015 Utilitywise acquired Energy Intelligence Centre for £15.5 million and later rebranded that division of the business simply as EIC. In 2017 the founder, Geoffrey Thompson, stepped down as chairman, and sold his remaining 6% stake in 2018. In 2018 Utilitywise partnered with

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

and

Dell EMC Dell EMC (EMC Corporation until 2016) is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Hopkinton, Massachusetts and Round Rock, Texas, United States. Dell EMC sells data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, cloud c ...

to deliver

IoT The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

energy monitoring solutions. Utilitywise entered into operations in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, Czech Republic when it acquired ICON Communication Centres. In January 2019 the company put itself up for sale after announcing that it needed a cash injection of £10 million to keep the business afloat. In early February the administrators were in discussions with potential investors to rescue the business. On 14 February the company entered administration. Creditors lodged claims of £116.1 million at the time of its collapse. Initially at the time of entering administration 570 jobs were lost at its North Tyneside base. In April, two months after entering administration it was announced that The Monarch Partnership had acquired the Energy Intelligence Centre and T-Mac Technologies enterprise businesses from Utilitywise.

References

{{reflist

External links

Utilitywise Plc
at

Companies House Companies House is the executive agency of the company registrars of the United Kingdom, falling under the remit of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. All forms of companies (as permitted by the Companies Act) are i ...

Companies based in Tyne and Wear British companies established in 2006 British companies disestablished in 2019