Sainsbury’s signs EDF as utilities product supplier

Sainsbury’s is to relaunch its utilities product in a new tie-up with EDF Energy that sees the supermarket chain end its five-year partnership with ScottishPower.

The relaunched Sainsbury’s Energy, which rolls out this week, will reward customers with Nectar points and claims to be &£125 cheaper than British Gas.

Consumers will be able to choose from a range of tariffs and payment methods, and can collect loyalty points for opening and maintaining their energy accounts.

Sainsbury’s Energy customers will be eligible for a new “fixed price tariff”, which offers frozen prices until 2010. Customers will also be able to sign up to a “Read. Reduce. Reward” scheme, earning reward points by submitting meter readings online.

An EDF spokesman says the partnership “will help us to acquire new customers throughout the country, building on our successful national brand launch in April of this year”.

Watchdog Energywatch says EDF Energy prices have increased 92% for gas and 54% for electricity since 2003 and it is the second-most expensive utility supplier after British Gas.

EDF Energy, which includes the former London Energy, Seeboard and SWEB brands, has more than 5 million customers in the UK.

Sainsbury’s Energy was launched in 2001 as a joint venture with ScottishPower. The utility company says: “The partnership had run its natural course and we decided not to renew the deal.”