Bord Gáis parent to shed 6,000 employees

Bord Gáis Energy’s strong contribution to its parent group may help shield it from a culling of more than 6,000 employees from Centrica’s global workforce, which it announced yesterday.

The British multinational energy company said 6,000 jobs would be lost as part of a strategic review of its global operations with about half to be arrived at through “turnover and attrition” and the remainder through redundancies. The company will also create 2,000 new roles in growth areas offsetting some of the losses to its current workforce of 37,500.

Centrica was yesterday unable to confirm there would be no job losses in Ireland while a Bord Gáis Energy spokesperson said it is a growing business, contributing positively to Centrica and always aiming to be as cost efficient as possible.

“Safety, compliance and customer service are not the focus [of the job losses]. We will consult with our employees directly once we have firm plans and treat them with dignity and respect while conducting a diligent process,” a Centrica spokesperson said.

The Irish Examiner understands Bord Gáis Energy’s healthy contribution toCentrica’s bottom line, as underlined in yesterday’s interim results, is likelyto mean its operations will be largely unaffected by the lay-offs.

The Irish company turned an impressive profit of £23m (€32.7m) in the first six months of the year. The utility’s gross revenue topped €570m in the same period.

“Bord Gáis Energy has performed well in the last 12 months since its acquisition on 30 June 2014 and reported an operating profit of £23m in the first half of 2015.

“In energy supply, colder weather resulted in higher than normal gas consumption, while the number of residential and business energy accounts remained broadly flat,” the interim report reads.

In January, Bord Gáis Energy announced a reduction in prices with residential gas prices falling by 3.5% and residential electricity tariffs falling by 2.5%.

This move helped the utility position itself to better compete with competitors with its dual fuel offer.

Bord Gáis Energy is also leveraging Centrica’s expertise in deregulated energy markets having launched the first residential fixed price tariff in Ireland.

Hive Active Heating, the thermostat and app, was also introduced during the first six months of the year with a full launch scheduled for the third quarter ahead of the winter period.

At group level, Centrica’s operating profit fell 3% to £1bn while revenues fell 2% to £15.45bn.

Higher profit from customer-facing businesses were more than offset by lower profit from upstream gas and power businesses.

First-half profits at British Gas’s residential arm climbed to £528m.

Higher residential energy consumption due to colder weather compared toa warm first half of 2014 and falling wholesale gas costs contributed tothe rise in the British utility’s profits.