Energy isn’t a flat cost across the SME landscape. A five-person consultancy and a 40-person food producer experience the market in completely different ways. Different usage patterns, different contract structures, different exposure when prices move. Here’s how the pressure shows up across the sectors we hear from most.
Manufacturing
Manufacturers are usually the most energy-intensive SMEs on this list. Machinery, refrigeration and heat-treatment processes can’t simply be switched off when the market spikes.
That intensity leaves them exposed on two fronts. The first is getting locked into a long, inflexible contract that was signed at a bad moment for prices. The second is paying broker commission that scales with (large) consumption volumes. For a manufacturer, even a small percentage saving on the unit rate turns into a meaningful annual number.
Hospitality
Pubs, restaurants and hotels run long hours, heavy kitchen equipment, and heating or cooling that has to keep up with unpredictable footfall. Margins are famously tight. Energy costs that creep up a couple of pence per kWh can erode profitability faster here than almost anywhere else.
Hospitality also has a habit of taking on an energy contract in a rush, during a busy opening or refit, without shopping the market properly. That means savings left on the table from day one, and often for the whole three-year term.
Retail
For retail SMEs, energy sits alongside rent and staff as one of the biggest fixed overheads. Especially for units that need heating, lighting and refrigeration on all the way through trading hours.
Multi-site retailers get an extra layer of complexity: several contracts, several meters, several renewal dates. It’s easy for a broker relationship to drift for years because no one has the bandwidth to review it site by site. That drift is where hidden commission does its best work.
Professional and office-based services
Offices are generally less energy-intensive than manufacturing or hospitality, which, oddly, can work against them.
Lower usage often means less negotiating leverage. It also means less scrutiny from the business owner, because the bill isn’t big enough to worry about. That’s the exact environment where a default renewal or a quietly high broker commission goes unnoticed for contract after contract.
The common thread
Whatever the sector, the underlying issue is the same. Without genuine competition for your contract, and clear visibility of what any middleman is being paid, there’s no reliable way to know whether your rate is any good. That’s true whether you’re running three chillers or three laptops.
What to do about it
The starting point is the same for every sector. Know your renewal date. Get more than one quote before it arrives. Ask any broker directly how they’re being paid, and don’t accept a vague answer.
The better fix is to change the format entirely. Instead of chasing three quotes a broker has hand-picked, open your contract to the UK’s major suppliers at the same time and let them bid against each other, live, until you decide to stop. One flat fee, agreed upfront, only payable if you accept.
That’s what energybid does, and it launches in Q4 2026. Register your interest now and your business will be set up ready to auction its contract at renewal, whichever sector you’re in.
