Good Energy unveils mixed bag of results

Good Energy has today released a mixed bag of financial results for last year, confirming that sales climbed by over a third but still fell short of the company's initial expectations.

Revenue at the renewable energy provider climbed 37 per cent during 2008 to £17.7m as customer numbers increased to over 25,000 homes and businesses.

However, Good Energy admitted that the growth in customer numbers had been lower than expected and consequently increased administrative costs had resulted in pre-tax profits falling from £545,269 in 2007 to £509,022.

Writing in the report, Good Energy chief executive Juliet Davenport said that poor economic conditions mean that the company remains "cautious about the short-term forecast growth for our electricity customer base".

But she added that it remained well positioned for the medium term given the imminent announcement of green tariff guidelines from Ofgem and government plans for new incentives for renewable heat and home generation. She also said trading for the first quarter has been "satisfactory" and that despite the economic uncertainty, the company was still predicting sales growth and an improvement in its financial performance for 2009.

Writing in the foreword to the report, chairman John Sellers said that the company was aware "profitability needs to be higher if we are to properly remunerate shareholder investment and attract new capital to further grow our activities".

But he too insisted that the outlook remained upbeat, particularly in the light of the recent award of planning permission for the company's proposed wind farm at Delabole in Cornwall. He said that the project would create " significant shareholder value" and that the company would now focus on securing financing for the development.

The figures come just days after new data from the US government showed that the appetite for green tariffs continued to grow last year despite the economic turmoil. According to figures released last week, energy sales through green power schemes grew 20 per cent last year with more than 600,000 customers now signed up to green tariffs.