Stuff buys stake in electricity company
Stuff, New Zealand’s largest news website, is teaming up with an electricity retailer that sells power to consumers at cost price in return for a weekly fee.
Energyclubnz, which was founded by David Goadby in March, costs up to $5 a week.
On Monday, it was announced Stuff, the New Zealand arm of listed Australian firm Fairfax Media, bought a 49.01 per cent stake in the energy firm.
Goadby said unlike big electricity companies, energyclubnz did not make any money if a household used more power.
‘‘Joining the club simplifies what is traditionally a really complicated billing process,’’ he said.
‘‘Customer feedback about our weekly online billing suggests customers love being aware of how much they are using and having the ability to really manage their power consumption.’’
Currently, energyclubnz is only available in Auckland on Vector networks, however Goadby was planning to expand through the country over the next year.
‘‘Our strategy is to partner with businesses that Kiwis will truly value.’’
Sinead Boucher
‘‘With a quick search on the web you can switch to a retailer, like us, and typically save hundreds of dollars annually.’’
Goadby envisaged families would never have to worry about large, unexpected monthly bills again, he said.
Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher said teaming up with Goadby was the next step in ‘‘helping our communities connect and thrive.’’
‘‘Our strategy is to partner with businesses that Kiwis will truly value and we believe this product is designed to give people a fairer deal on their energy costs.
‘‘We own New Zealand’s largest website stuff.co.nz, we have a majority ownership in Neighbourly - a hyper-local social media network and we recently partnered with NZ Fibre Communications Limited to launch New Zealand’s first fibre only broadband provider, Stuff Fibre.
‘‘We welcome energyclubnz into the fold as we continue to explore new opportunities that will support our core business of journalism.’’
Energyclubnz joins Stuff Fibre in Stuff’s stable of businesses it runs to make money to fund its journalism.