Cathal Fay, the founder of energy supplier Yuno Group, has been chosen as Business Person of the Month for November, an award run in association with Bank of Ireland.
During the month, its subsidiary PrepayPower posted a 23 per cent increase in sales for last year as it passed on wholesale energy price increases to households and entered the pay-as-you-go market with a new brand, Yuno Energy.
This news followed the announcement at the end of October that Yuno Group had bought the Firmus gas supply business in Northern Ireland in a deal understood to be worth around €40 million.
This marked its first move across the border. According to a statement, Firmus Energy is the biggest natural gas supplier in the North, with 113,000 homes and businesses on its books.
Commenting on the Northern Ireland acquisition, Mr Fay dubbed it as “transformational”, saying it boosted customer numbers by one third and opened new growth opportunities. “We believe we can add real value to Firmus Energy’s strong platform, and that the transaction will greatly strengthen our overall business,” he said.
The Dublin-based group owns both the Yuno and Prepay Power businesses in the Republic. This deal will bring sales to €600 million a year, give it a total of 410,000 customers and boost its workforce to almost 600.
Mr Fay began the business with Prepay Power, the prepaid electricity supplier, in 2009. That is now the biggest prepaid energy business in the Republic. The group launched Yuno as a bill-paying electricity supplier in August last year. It added natural gas to its services in September.
