Npower chief leaves as RWE proposes rebrand

Npower marketing chief David Andrew has been left without a job to go to following a company shake-up. It is understood that npower, owned by German utility company RWE, was in the middle of a strategic review to rebrand npower as RWE, and that Andrew disagreed with the company’s move.

Npower, formerly called National Power, was bought by RWE last year.

As part of the restructure, Andrew’s role as director of brand development has been merged with the role of director of residential, held by Kevin Miles.

Insiders suggest that the company has been trying to move away from being a home services brand to a utility company that offers only the core gas and electricity products. It is understood that the shift in strategy follows Andrew Duff’s appointment as chief executive in September last year.

Duff joined npower from parent company Innogy and replaced Steve Fletcher, who along with Andrew was responsible for the launch of the npower brand (MW September 12, 2002). Earlier this year, npower scaled back its telecommunications business (MW January 23).

Andrew, a former Hilton Hotels UK vice-president of marketing, joined National Power in 1999 (MW October 7, 1999). He was responsible for appointing TBWA/London to help spearhead the launch of npower (MW January 6, 2000). The agency has not produced any creative work for the utility company since last summer.