Profits almost halved at Grimsby GreenTech Myenergi before it made more than 100 people redundant.
The smart home energy technology manufacturer – ranked 15th on our TransportTech 50 last year – posted pre-tax profits of £8.8 million for 12 months to 31st May 2023, down from £14.8m in the previous year.
However revenue jumped from £53.8m to £67.5m in the period.
Myenergi had grown its workforce from 273 to 445 in those 12 months. However 99 people were laid off last July – 30 enforced and 69 voluntary – after sales of its zappi electric vehicle charge point slowed.
The business started a new round of redundancies at the end of January this year.
“The market conditions faced by myenergi remain tough, with a harsh macro-economic landscape and some fast-changing market forces affecting our ability to grow as we had hoped,” it stated. “We had hoped to see improvements over the last six months, but this has not happened, and we have seen lower sales than expected.
“We have therefore taken the enormously difficult decision to identify a number of roles that are at risk of redundancy and enter into a collective consultation period. We remain confident about myenergi’s future and that we will emerge from this challenging period in a strong position.”
Founded by Lee Sutton and Jordan Brompton in 2016, Myenergi initially grew locally via crowdfunding before becoming one of the UK’s 10 fastest-growing companies. Brompton won Great British Entrepreneur of the Year in 2022.
It secured £30 million in funding from Energy Impact Partners (EIP) in October 2023 – following a £30m debt finance package from HSBC earlier in the year – to grow its international presence.
‘Investors & entrepreneurs told me to leave Leeds for London’
European revenue in the 12 months to 31st May fell from £29m to £24.4m, but sales in the rest of the world rose from £814,000 to £2m. UK revenue increased from £23.9m to £41m.
Myenergi’s board includes former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy and Peter Richardson, former COO of Dyson.
In the newly filed accounts, it stated: “Despite the challenges we faced in the 2022/23 financial year, Myenergi demonstrated strong double-digit revenue growth and profitability, which we continue to invest back into our product offering and customer experience.
“We are confident that Myenergi is in a strong position to support the growing market in renewable energy, electric vehicles and decarbonised heating and we are committed to continuing to develop new propositions to support our purpose of removing barriers to a greener future.”