Ryan Bridge: Flick Electric on its last legs is a sign winter's coming

If what’s they’re saying about a Flick Electric shutting up shop is true, and I’ve no reason to doubt it, then it should come as no surprise.

This is a BusinessDesk report - it's owned by Z and so far, they're not saying anything.

It’s one of the smaller retailers that help keep the bigger gentailers honest, but the cracks started showing ages ago.

Winter 2021, they closed their books to new customers. The great wholesale price crunch hit them hard. 

Last year, again, wholesale prices shot up above retail. 

You can’t run a business like that, and we were warned then about what is happening now.

Means little guys can’t hold on.

The problem is hedging. They couldn’t afford the cost of hedging during the crunch for new customers. 

That means less choice for us, and we know what that typically means for prices. 

Unlike your Air New Zealand regional airfares debate this past week, there is a quick fix for this problem. At least a partial one. 

The government announced to much fanfare in February that the big gentailers would no longer be allowed to offer sweetheart deals to their own lot, and transparency about those deals would be forced upon them.

The generator part favouring its own tailer, but not other, smaller players. So, the odds are stacked against them and flick - out goes the lights. 

So, we've known about this unfairness since at least 2021 for Flick, we've had belatedly an announcement something might change, but years later no change and another retailer bites the dust. 

40,0000 customers off to, you guessed it, Meridian - one of the big gentailers.

Losing Flick, if true, is another sign winter is coming, and I can’t see anybody in much of a hurry to do much about it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If what they're saying about Flick Electric shutting up shop
is true, and I've got no reason to doubt it,
then sadly it should come as no surprise to us.
This is a business desk report. Flickers owned by z
So far they're not saying anything, but it's one of
the smaller retailers. They help keep the bigger Gen Taylors
on us their forty thousand customers. Does Flick have well

(00:22):
had potentially but the cracks started showing ages ago, like
winter twenty twenty one, they closed their books to new customers.
The great wholesale price crunch hit them hard. And last
year again wholesale price is shot up above retail and
you can't run a business like that. We were warned
then about what is happening now. It means the little

(00:45):
guys basically can't hold on. The problem for them is hedging.
This is their big problem. They can't afford the cost
of hedging during a crunch for new customers, and that
means least choice for us, and we know what that
typically does to prices. And unlike Air New Zealand and
the regional airfares debate in the past week, there is

(01:07):
in this situation, a quick fix for the problem, at
least a partial one, and guess what the government announced
such a fix too much fanfare in February. They said
that the big gen tailors would no longer be allowed
to offer sweetheart deals to their own lot. Transparency about
these deals would be forced upon them. We had the

(01:27):
Minister on at the time. Now, the generator part has
been favoring the Taylor part, but not the other smaller players,
so they were going to do something about it. The
odds are basically stacked against Flick and the little guys
and out Flix the lights. So we've known about this
on Fairness since at least twenty twenty one for Flick,

(01:50):
and we've had belatedly an announcement that something might change,
but years later, no real change and another retailer bites
the dust customers off to you guessed at Meridian, one
of the big gent tailors. Losing Flick, if true, is
another sign that winter is coming, and I can't see
anybody in much of a hurry to do much of

(02:12):
anything about it. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
listen live to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,