INTERVIEW
Branching out
2017 was a very good year for Utility Alliance. On a highly successful night of accolades at the Hartlepool Business Awards in May the energy brokers – which started with just six employees three years ago – walked away with a hat-trick of awards; namely Most Promising New Business, Service Sector Business of the Year and the prestigious overall Hartlepool Business of the Year. And this year has seen the company, which now employs
over 300 employees over two sites, carry on where it left off, having recently been shortlisted in the 2018 North East Business Awards. While Utility Alliance’s rise in its native North East has
been nothing less than meteoric, its sights are now cast further afield. As well as setting up a partnership with Premier League
outfit Burnley Football Club, Utility Alliance, which trades monitors and uses the latest technologies to save clients time and money by lowering electric, gas and water bills, has also, in the past six months, set up a permanent base in Sheffield, where working with businesses across the region – including the East Midlands – forms a large part of its overall strategy. The implementation of this vision falls under the remit of
Daniel Potter, who took on the role of Managing Director of the Sheffield site five months ago. It’s a position, Daniel explains, that has been a long time in the making. “I started out in this industry in 2003 and my roles
weren’t originally in management. I started out on the phone, just like all of our directors did initially; we had to work our way through the ranks,” says Daniel. “I loved being on the phone. Of course it was challenging
but I enjoyed speaking with different customers and it’s there that I really found my niche of dealing with business customers. I found I was having better and more potentially significant conversations with businesses which played to my strengths more than liaising with domestic clients. “From there I progressed from an on-the-phone role to
work in, and develop a greater understanding of, different elements of a business - including coaching, quality management and training, which is where I really found myself excelling – working with, and getting the best out of, a variety of people. “From there I moved into a head of training role before
this opportunity came up – so this has been 14 years in the making. It hasn’t been a quick rise to prominence, it’s taken a whole lot of hard work to get to where I am now and now I am at the beginning of a new chapter with Utility Alliance, where the hard work will continue.” While such rapid, exponential growth - Utility Alliance is
predicting last year’s £6m turnover will at least treble to £18m by the end of the financial year - presents exciting new opportunities, the company’s expansion nevertheless creates challenges, none more so than in establishing the brand and its products and services to a new area. It is a challenge, however, that Daniel is relishing.
40 business network March 2018 “The growth of the company has been phenomenal. You
can only grow when you’re profitable and the profits that the company make go back into increasing our headcount and bringing quality people into the organisation, which enables us to invest in marketing, training and the supporting and developing of people. All these areas of development and progression for the business are key and have a positive impact; ultimately, that is good for our customers. “This is our first venture outside of the North East. I am
responsible for everything here from sales performance, finance, training, coaching, marketing and everything in between. We have a core marketing team in Hartlepool, which we liaise with all the time, but everything that happens under this roof is on my head,” explains Daniel. “We’re not necessarily limiting ourselves to looking to gain
relationships with domestic and business customers just in this area but clearly the work we’re doing as a new Patron of the Chamber is aimed at helping businesses in the East Midlands become more sustainable through understanding and reducing energy consumption and costs.” The energy market and the landscape it operates in is changing. Rather than being simply about products, prices and inflexible energy tariffs and contracts, people – and businesses – seem more in-tune with innovative solutions and ones which enhance sustainable credentials; a view which Daniel clearly agrees with. “Customers want more these days. When I first started
out in this industry customers wanted a price and wanted you to do the shopping around for them,” suggests Daniel. “It’s changed considerably since then and you need to
have that competitive edge and, importantly, be ahead of the game. Having the technology that we have at our fingertips really gives us that advantage over
Utility Alliance has enjoyed prodigious success in the North East and now has its sights set on the Midlands and Yorkshire. Managing Director Daniel Potter spoke to Business Network Editor Nathan Fearn about the rise of the company and its core objective – helping businesses become more sustainable.
Utility Alliance's headquarters
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