UK Energy Retailer Opens in Germany

UK green electricity and gas retailer Octopus Energy has opened up a sales operation in Germany, it said November 24. It aims to have 1mn customers by 2024, with innovative green electricity tariffs and flexible contracts among its selling-points. The rapid expansion is being driven by an initial investment of €80mn. It bought Bavarian energy start-up 4hundred in September last year.

Octopus said it would offer customers the greatest possible contractual flexibility and access to cheap, environmentally friendly electricity for households and electric cars and transparent energy prices. It has won awards in the UK for customer service.

Octopus has already entered the Australian and US energy retail markets: Australian retailer Origin bought a stake in the company earlier this year. In the UK it has also bought customers from other energy retailers. Many of its UK rivals failed in the wake of the "beast from the east" in March 2018 when energy prices soared at a time of low storage stocks.