(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) – “There is a lot of potential in the Italian energy market, both for the production of energy and for the sale to the final customer. About 40% of Italians have never changed company, so they still don’t know if the service and products of other companies can be better. By combining our state-of-the-art technology and customer focus with our competitively priced green tariffs, we will offer them attractive alternatives to current suppliers. ” Thus, in an interview with Radiocor, Greg Jackson, CEO and founder of Octopus Energy, a big British energy company that today announced the landing in our country, through the acquisition of Sato, with the aim of achieving 1 million of customers by 2025. Globally, he adds, the ambition is “to serve 100 million of customers on our Kraken technology platform by 2027 and Italy is a huge opportunity to help achieve this goal. We can also help Italy decarbonise, using our agile technology to make green energy cheaper for consumers. We have already done this in the UK and have already managed to reach over 3.1 million customers ”.
The efficiencies of the Kraken platform
There are not a few big foreigners who, recently, have approached the Italian electricity and gas retail market with large investments but, to date, not very exciting results. However Jackson is convinced that Octopus can play its cards: “Over the past two years, we have launched retail operations in five new countries, including Japan, New Zealand, United States, Spain and Germany. These markets are all very different, but by building local teams with specific knowledge and experience and upgrading them with the Octopus toolset, we have seen amazing results: German customers have multiplied sixfold since the beginning of the year. ” Octopus strength is certainly the piattaforma Kraken which – explains the CEO – “immensely increases operating efficiency: our operating costs in the United Kingdom are about 50-75% compared to those of our competitors. We are talking about an incredibly intuitive and very easy to use technology platform, which allows us to use a “universal agent model” as well as to create products that make the most of renewable energy making it cost-effective for customers ”.
Expansion into new markets
Beyond Italy, where in the acquired company Sato “we have seen a customer focus similar to ours”, – concludes Jackson – Octopus Energy is exploring opportunities in several countries and “is rapidly becoming a global name in the power”. “We will focus much of our energy on Italy, where we see enormous potential for low-cost green energy and hope to use success as a model to explore new markets through partnerships, acquisitions or the launch of retail operations,” concludes the manager.