100 jobs under threat at Grimsby-based smart home tech firm myenergi

Almost 100 jobs are thought to be under threat at smart home energy technology manufacturer myenergi.

The Grimsby firm, named one of the UK’s fastest growing companies less than a year ago, has said that new orders of its staple Zappi electric vehicle charger and allied devices haven’t been maintained at anticipated levels, with the removal of consumer incentives also cited.

The business had been identified as one of the UK’s 10 fastest-growing private companies with an average annual turnover growth of more than 180% over the past three years.

Launched by Lee Sutton, chief executive, and Jordan Brompton, chief marketing officer in 2016, it attracted backing from investment house head Bill Currie and former Tesco CEO Sir Terry Leahy to help advance the required rapid scale-up.

However, according to GrimsbyLive, new orders of zappi haven’t kept pace with expectations and a 45-day consultation with staff has begun.

A spokesperson for Myenergi said: “Myenergi has experienced unrivalled levels of growth in one of the world’s fastest growing sectors, and has always aimed to scale its resources and teams to meet the needs of the market. However, challenges arising from the macro-economic environment, including the cost of living crisis; as well as lower than expected growth in our largest electric vehicle charge point markets – due to the removal of consumer incentives – means that growth is not forecast to be as high as expected.

“While overall demand for our products remains high, the level of recruitment undertaken to deliver a backlog in orders now appears to be too high relative to current demand, and we are having to adjust the scale of our resourcing accordingly.

“The current scale of the business is not at a level that we believe can be sustained in the short term, if we are to remain competitive and able to invest in the future. We have therefore had to take the enormously difficult decision to identify a number of roles that are at risk of redundancy and enter into a collective consultation period.

“This is not a decision that we ever envisaged or wanted to be making, but it is sadly one that we believe is necessary based on the reality of current market conditions. We remain confident about Myenergi’s future and committed to our role in the region, including manufacturing.”

As recently as April, myenergi landed a £30m funding package from HSBC UK to support the development and production of smart home energy products.