Energy firm in Borders looks to boost staff by 160 in 2018

● Rapidly growing business focused on home movers

A Selkirk-based energy company that says it is one of the fastest growing businesses is to power up its workforce with a further 160 staff next year.

Spark Energy is a niche energy supplier for home movers and said the announcement marks the first anniversary of its dedicated on-site training academy.

The new additions are to be based across its customer service and back-office departments including IT, finance, legal and compliance, HR and training.

And in total, Spark Academy has to-date delivered more than 23,000 hours of training, upskilling nearly 200 employees, comprising 125 customer service staff and about 70 in non-customer facing roles.

“This equated to a total of 23,437.5 hours of training, with each new customer service recruit spending five weeks learning in detail about different aspects of their role,” Spark Energy said.

“As one of the fastest-growing businesses in the UK and with a commitment to constantly improving customer experience, Spark recognised the need to ensure access to well-trained new employees as well as providing career long learning opportunities for their existing team who now operate from bases in the Borders, Edinburgh and Horsham in the south of England.”

Spark’s director of people John Hawkins was the architect of the Academy, and said the volume of training delivered “is testament to its benefits for not only Spark and its customers, but the entire Borders region. Most of Spark’s staff live within ten miles of Selkirk, making an invaluable contribution to the jobs market in the local area. But we’re growing quickly… so we’re always on the lookout for new talent to help the business provide a great experience for our customers.”

Spark says it has more than 400,000 customer accounts, and describes itself as the only multi-utility provider in Britain “built around the needs of the rapidly growing lettings sector, working with letting agents, social landlords and homeowners, to provide hassle-free energy and broadband and entertainment services that are live and ready for home movers”.

In May it acquired Home Telecom, adding fixed-line telephone, high-speed broadband and Sky TV entertainment packages to its offering, with contract terms fitting the length of a customer’s lease. Spark is focused on customer service as one of many young, nimble firms looking to grow market share in the competitive energy market. Food producer Mackie’s of Scotland is opening the doors to an ice cream parlour in Aberdeen’s new £107 million Marischal Square development, marking the family firm’s first retail venture. Named 19.2, the parlour is located exactly 19.2 miles from the Mackie’s Westertown farm, where it produces its ice cream and chocolate ranges. The parlour will feature a lifesize fibre glass cow, which will be illuminated in bright colours to give the venue a “quirky feel”, Mackie’s said.