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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