Businesses must act quickly to cut utility costs
Hospitality operators could save thousands on energy bills by switching to better utility deals, claims buying specialist Lynx Purchasing.
With oil prices increasing as tensions in the Middle East and Africa continue, Lynx believes that businesses should be looking at signing up to multi-year contracts to guard against volatility in the utilities market. The warning comes in the newly-published Lynx Purchasing Market Forecast, an overview of market and pricing trends for hospitality operators.
Lynx managing director John Pinder said: "Utility prices are driven by events, and predicting how they will behave is never simple. While the continued downturn in the European economy and falling demand in China have kept the price of oil steady, the renewed tension in the Middle East is likely to cause another price spike.
"With utility prices currently as low as they've been for a couple of years, but expected to rise, we believe is the time for operators to look at longer-term, two- to three-year utility deals. The savings on existing deals can run into thousands, even for a single site, and increase significantly for multiple operators."
Expanding Mexican restaurant chain Benito's Hat, which opens its fourth London site in King's Cross in March, has agreed a new energy supply contract negotiated by Lynx. Ben Fordham, Benito's founder, said: "Finding the best energy deals is time-consuming, and a huge challenge for a business. Lynx provides us with the certainty we are getting a good deal without needing to trawl through all the suppliers out there."
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By Janet Harmer
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