Equipe Tyre & Autocare saves money with meters

A business with multiple sites located across North West England, Equipe Tyre & Autocare is now seeing the benefit of monitoring energy usage. The idea is simple. If you can save energy you can save money. However, according to the company, getting on top of energy bills across all of its sites before the installation of smart meters was difficult; poor billing was a significant problem with meters being read infrequently. This led to over-estimated and costly bills being received. Equipe wanted a solution that would enable them to monitor usage, reduce the amount of energy wasted and most importantly ensured accurate billing for all of its premises.

In order to smooth out the process, First Utility worked with Equipe to install smart metering technology across nine of its premises enabling the business to monitor its energy usage and, most importantly, receive accurate bills. Now First Utility has been providing the solution for Equipe for over two years.

As a result First Utility is now providing Equipe’s head office with one accurate monthly bill, which is broken down by site, allowing full visibility of consumption and costs for each individual business premise. This new approach to energy provision has reportedly helped Equipe make considerable savings across its business. 

Graeme Hepburn, director at Equipe, has been impressed with how smart metering technology has prompted the business and its employees to look at ways of being more energy efficient. “The data we can now see through the online portal enables each site to monitor and manage its own energy consumption. Each site sets a target and aims to consume less power; their efforts are forcing down our operating costs. The data provided by the smart meter is invaluable, without it we could not manage our energy consumption to this level.”

The change in behaviour across the business is also said have had a significant financial impact. “We now receive 100 per cent accurate bills via the smart meter, allowing us to budget more accurately. We pay for what we use and there are no more estimates.  Now we also have data to hand and can ensure that each site is on the correct tariff. The installation of smart meters has saved us on average 30 per cent per annum, on a £2000+ per month spend, this is a considerable figure.”

Equipe Tyre & Autocare is a family run business with over 30 years’ experience in the automobile industry providing a range of products and fitting services including tyres, exhausts and brakes. Established in 2002, the business currently has 10 premises across the UK equipped modern equipment and customer focused staff.