New record for switches to small and medium suppliers

April was a record month for customers switching away from large energy suppliers to small and medium-sized retailers, new figures from Electralink show.

In total April saw 623,000 changes of electricity supplier and those with a market share of less than five per cent each enjoyed a fruitful month.

Changes of supplier from large to other reached 209,000 which is a narrow increase from the previous record for this category set in April 2019.

Within the ‘other’ category small suppliers (with a market share of less than one per cent) performed the best while medium suppliers matched the overall trend of a slight decline on March’s total.

Of all switches:

• Large to large reached 288,000 – 35 per cent more than April 2020 and 46 per cent of April 2021’s total switches completed
• Large to other was 209,000 – 61 per cent more than April 2020 and 34 per cent of April 2021’s total switches completed
• Other to large landed at 66,000 – 14 per cent less than April 2020 and 11 per cent of April 2021’s total switches completed
• Other to other hit 60,000 – two per cent less than April 2020 and 10 per cent of April 2021’s total switches completed.

While last month’s total switches completed is seven per cent less than the record set in April 2019, it is still 29 per cent more than April last year when the impact of the pandemic began to bite. Compared to March 2021, there was a 4 per cent fall.

Electralink added that the high number of switches that carried through into April was all due to the record number of changes of supplier started in March.

April’s switches started reached 564,000, an increase of 15 per cent compared to last year.