AN ENERGY supply company in Bournemouth has been taken over by a Swedish firm, giving the new owner a foothold in the UK market.

iSupplyEnergy, which employs 170 people, has been acquired by Vattenfall, with an assurance that no jobs are at risk.

iSupplyEnergy, based in Richmond House on Bournemouth’s Richmond Hill, supplies more than 120,000 gas and electricity customers. It will continue as a subsidiary of Vattenfall.

The Swedish company has spent more than £3billion since 2008 on building a leading UK wind energy businesses. It recently branched out into solar PV, battery storage and business-to-business sales.

Magnus Hall, Vattenfall’s president and chief executive, said: “We consider the UK to be a strategically important market. We are in Britain to grow and our acquisition of iSupplyEnergy strengthens our energy business in northern Europe.”

Vattenfall’s senior vice-president for customers and solutions, Martijn Hagens, said: “We have a strong and growing customer focused company with more than eight million power, gas and heat customers in northern Europe.

“We are convinced our acquisition of iSupplyEnergy will be good for our new customers, as we will combine our experience and increasingly smart and fossil-fuel free energy solutions with iSupplyEnergy’s strong, nimble, digitalised and transparent customer service.”

Rob Gildert, chief executive of iSupplyEnergy, said: “iSupplyEnergy is delighted to become part of Vattenfall. We are very happy with the cultural fit and desire to deliver a fair deal for the customer and a high quality customer experience.

"This acquisition is a vote of confidence in the strength of our business and excellent news for both our many thousands of customers and our dedicated team of staff of staff based in Bournemouth.

“I would like to reassure our customers that there will be no impact on the day-to-day management of their account. Also, I can guarantee that customers can continue to rely on our excellent customer service.

“The backing and expertise of Vattenfall will allow the company to deliver climate smarter energy, market leading customer service and great products to customers to help them manage their energy better.”