Centrica lays out expansion strategy after its energetic 'transformation'

CENTRICA will attempt to steal back market share after chief executive Sam Laidlaw yesterday set out a range of new strategic aims for the Scottish Gas owner.

Scottish & Southern Energy and other rivals have been winning customers in recent months, but Laidlaw has stemmed the flow, adding 550,000 customer accounts during 2009.

More than 200m in costs has been taken out of the business since Laidlaw joined the company in 2006, when British and Scottish Gas was loss-making, but he said it was now delivering performance ahead of its rivals.

"We have, by all independent metrics, the best customer service in the sector," Laidlaw said.

Earlier this month Centrica announced a 7 per cent cut in its retail gas prices, the first of the major utilities to reduce its prices.

While he declined to comment on whether aggressive pricing would form part of its strategy to attract customers, Laidlaw said Centrica would strive to make cuts before its rivals.

The company said yesterday that it will take on 1,100 staff to install home insulation, a business it has identified as a growth area.

Laidlaw said Centrica would also take the lead on "smart meters", which will make it easier for customers to reduce energy needs through micro-generation of their own power using, for example, solar panels.

The company reported a 7 per cent fall in group operating profits, to 1.86 billion, for 2009.

A weaker performance by its upstream oil and gas business was offset by a record 595 million profit from its residential business, a 58 per cent increase over the previous year.

Laidlaw said 2009 had been "transformational" for Centrica, a year in which the company bought a 20 per cent stake in nuclear operator British Energy and completed a 1.3bn hostile takeover of Aberdeen-based Venture Production.

The acquisitions mean it is now generating more than 60 per cent of the energy it needs to supply its customers from its own assets.

It generated just over 20 per cent of its customers' energy needs in 2006, and the acquisitions were made to cut its dependence on the volatile wholesale energy markets.

While it said it had achieved its target for a "hedge" against the wholesale markets, Centrica said it would continue to do deals, announcing a 246m acquisition of liquefied natural gas assets in Trinidad yesterday.

Shares in Centrica closed up 2.1 per cent at 277.7p.