History of eaga

eaga was established in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1990 to administer the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme (HEES), which provided Government funded grants for low income households to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. From day one eaga began building a reputation for driving up standards in the energy efficiency industry sector and for delivering excellent customer service to vulnerable people.

Former Chief Executive John Clough developed a culture that was guided by strong social and environmental values; these guiding principles remain central to current Chief Executive, Drew Johnson's approach today. As eaga grew throughout the 1990s and its market dynamics changed, the Board took the decision to restructure the business into a 100% employee owned limited company in 2000 (the eaga Partnership Ltd, 100 percent owned by an Employee Benefit Trust and modeled on the UK's largest employee owned company, the John Lewis Partnership). The Partnership structure enabled all employees to benefit from the company's success and is what continues to motivate and inspire commitment from eaga's Partners today.

eaga's profitability was transformed in 2005 after the company repositioned itself from programme manager to end-to-end service provider. The company built up its internal delivery capacity through a number of strategic acquisitions, primarily of leading heating and insulation installers, whilst at the same time organically building eagaheat (formerly Iguana), one of the UK's leading domestic boiler installation businesses. As well as building eaga's national delivery capability, the acquisitions brought a significant increase in the work done for utility companies under the rapidly expanding CERT programme.

In June 2007, eaga floated on the London Stock Exchange, and quickly entered the FTSE250, where it remains a proven growth stock. The process of flotation gave eaga the flexibility to access capital markets as its growth and expansion continued. However, the principle of employee share ownership that had driven so much of eaga’s success to that point was preserved in part during that process, as 37% of the shares in the business continue to be held in trust on behalf of all employees by the eaga Partnership Trust.

eaga has continued to diversify into new markets, in particular through its successful tender to deliver the Switchover Help Scheme on behalf of the BBC, the ongoing growth of its social housing business and the continuing development and rollout of innovative environmental products such as eaga ShowerSmart.

From a starting position of four members of staff in one office in Newcastle, through to a multinational FTSE250 company of more than 5,000 Partners, eaga's history has already encompassed a great deal. The challenge ahead for eaga is to extend its position to write new and successful volumes in the story.