Business Gas and Electricity News

How Restaurants Can Get the Best Business Gas Rates

11 May 2017

How Restaurants Can Get the Best Business Gas Rates

As a restaurant, energy is a significant proportion of your costs – significant enough to spend time ensuring you pay as little as possible for gas. How do you get the best business gas rates, however?

You spend so much on gas because it is such an integral part of your business. You probably use it for cooking, for hot water, and to heat the dining area.

This, of course, is a benefit as well – the reliability of gas ensures you can run an efficient business. For example, your chefs have confidence every time they turn on a ring that it will fire into life.

This convenience doesn’t come at any cost, though. In other words, you can lower your bills and you can get the best business gas rates.

The Most Important Piece of Advice for Restaurants

The most important thing you can do as a restaurant is ensure you don’t automatically roll your contract on when the minimum term expires. Your gas provider will be more than happy to do this as any reduced rate they gave you to get you to sign up will no longer apply. In the vast majority of situations, this will mean you’ll pay more. That benefits nobody except your gas supplier, i.e. you won’t get any additional services in return for the price increase.

So, make sure you go to market every time your gas contract is up for renewal. Here are some tips for doing that effectively:

• Know when your current contract is up – you’ll need to look at the options you have available so it’s important you leave yourself with enough time. This means knowing when the minimum term on your current contract ends.

• Review your current contract – make sure you also review your current contract and the deal you’re on. This will help put any new deal you’re offered into perspective. After all, most businesses only look at the deal they are on for gas every couple of years so it’s worth refreshing your memory.

• Conduct extensive research – it costs nothing but time to research the deals that are currently available. Make sure you cast your research net as wide as possible. This means not restricting yourself to the big six energy suppliers. Smaller suppliers often offer better business gas rates, more favourable terms, and enhanced levels of service. You can also find suppliers who specialise in supplying gas to businesses.

• Consider the contract in its totality – finally, don’t be blinded by cheap elements of the contract or headline deals. You should instead look at the whole contract. This includes the total cost of both the unit rate and the daily standing charge together – it’s best not to consider these in isolation. You should also consider the contract term to ensure it meets the needs of your business, and any discounts you get for things like paying by direct debit or using the same supplier for both gas and electricity.

Making sure you get the best business gas rates is possible. It takes is a bit of time and effort on your behalf, but it is worth it in the long-run.