A NORTH-EAST energy and utilities consultancy firm has seen revenue increase 105 per cent to £21m. 

South Shields-based Utilitywise also saw gross profit increase 110 per cent to £9m in the six months to the end of January.

In addition, its customer base grew to 17,903 an increase of 36 per cent on January 31 2013, and its team of energy consultants grew to 347, an increase of 23 in the six months. 

Utilitywise, which manages energy meters and brokers competitive gas and electricity tariffs for major UK businesses, secured £27m of new business, a 107 per cent increase. 

In a trading update Utilitywise also announced that it has bought communication company Icon, which operates a call centre employing 150 people in the Czech Republic. 

Geoff Thompson, the chief executive of Utilitywise, said: 

“Utilitywise has continued to make impressive progress, with improvement in all of our key metrics. With our current positive momentum, we now anticipate our performance for the full year will be slightly ahead of current market expectations.

“These results demonstrate the strength of our proposition, our continued ability to scale our business model and the important differentiation we have achieved through our on-going development of our energy management products and services.

“Alongside the impressive organic growth achieved we have successfully created value through strategic acquisitions. We continue to investigate potential acquisitions to broaden our energy services offering and increase shareholder value.

“In light of the on-going debate over energy costs, and the keen interest being shown in the sector by government and the regulator, Utilitywise is well positioned to provide commercial customers of all sizes with the right energy solutions to meet their individual needs.”