Shell has announced it is considering the future of its UK domestic retail business, five years after entering the market with the purchase of First Utility.
Shell Energy Retail, which supplies 1.4 million domestic energy customers in the UK, has made significant losses in recent years, with its latest accounts showing it lost a total of almost £220 million across 2020 and 2021.
In an announcement on Thursday (26 January), Shell said it is launching a strategic review of its home energy retail businesses in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.
The company’s wholesale and B2B energy supply businesses are out of scope for the review, as are its home energy supply businesses in the USA and Australia.
A spokesperson said: “The review is in line with our Powering Progress strategy, which includes continually exploring options to maximise the value of our portfolio and address performance in tough market conditions.
“No decisions have yet been taken on the way forward and our priority remains to ensure our customers in those countries continue to receive a reliable and affordable energy supply, and to provide support for customers who are struggling with the cost of energy and wider cost of living pressures.
“We remain committed to our integrated business model that produces, buys, trades, transports and sells energy around the world.”
The spokesperson said the company intends to provide an update on the outcome of the review, which is likely to take a number of months, in due course.
When it announced it had agreed to buy First Utility in December 2017, Shell said its motivation for the deal was expanding its energy supply business from commercial and industrial customers into the residential sector, which would allow it to bring its products and services to more customers.
In 2019 the company rebranded First Utility as Shell Energy Retail.
Since then it has taken on more than half a million customers following the wave of supplier failures that came at the onset of the energy current crisis in late 2021.