MIC acquires Business Save

ECI Portfolio company Make It Cheaper (MIC) has announced the acquisition of St Albans based Business Save (BSI). This move provides MIC with new channels to market for its time and money saving services for UK SMEs.

Based in St Albans with a team of 75, BSI operates as an energy broker in the SME market. It has a strong reputation with suppliers, and an excellent customer satisfaction rate, as evidenced in its Net Promoter Score and industry leading renewal rates. It acquires new customers through telemarketing activity.

This route to market will bring a new capability to MIC. Through BSI, MIC will access the ‘sleeper’ segment of business customers who are not actively looking to switch energy contracts but will with the help of a trusted intermediary. Currently MIC attracts customers through inbound marketing activity (i.e. ‘digital marketing and partnerships) and these customers fall largely into the ‘shopper’ segment (c.20% of the SME market).

Additionally, the acquisition will see MIC offer BSI customers new products in the form of telecoms and insurance, as well as it’s pioneering “Do It For You” auto-switching service. In research a high proportion of the BSI customer base expressed strong interest in these services.

The acquisition boosts MIC Group’s total contracts under management to over 115,000. MIC ranks Number 1 in the Cornwall Energy TPI index.

Jonathan Elliott, Make It Cheaper CEO commented:

We tracked the performance of Business Save for a number of years, and were consistently impressed by its growth, compliance and quality levels in their market segment. Under the leadership of industry veteran Simon Paul, Business Save has become one of the leading, high quality energy direct customer acquisition platforms. The acquisition will allow MIC to ‘put the smile on the face of even more businesses in the UK’ and allow us to access the ‘sleeper’ segment of business customers who currently are missing out on £1,000s savings through over inflated bills.

Jonathan Elliott

Make It Cheaper CEO

Simon Paul, Executive Chairman of Business Save said:

There is only one operator in the SME/Corporate energy market which would represent a good fit for Business Save, and that’s Make It Cheaper. Business Save operates with similar values to Make It Cheaper – we focus on getting it right for our teams, our customers and our suppliers. I’m hugely excited about the next chapter, and look forward to working with Jonathan and the team at MIC to further develop the business.

Simon Paul

Executive Chairman of Business Save

Richard Chapman, Partner at ECI and Board Director at MIC commented:

We’re thrilled to bring BSI into the MIC Group and see this as an important step in achieving MIC’s strategic goals of reaching new market segments, and helping customers save time and money on multiple products.”

Richard Chapman

Partner at ECI and Board Director at MIC