It’s always exciting to see how companies, when they put their heads together, can really make a difference. As part of the Texas Dairy Queen Operator’s Council, Bowen Enterprise of Corpus Christie, TX is certainly a franchise food industry market leader. As the energy supply markets became more volatile, they started to look for an alternative to their existing energy supplier and a way to bring some consistency and savings across their portfolio of 15 locations and 27 separate accounts.
CJ Peterson, of Diversegy, coordinated a detailed energy audit, including a review of months of utility bills and expenses across all locations. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Genie Energy Ltd. (NYSE:GNE), Diversegy is a commercial energy advisory with the expertise to uncover billing inconsistencies, and the buying power to negotiate the best rates and supply service agreements on behalf of their clients. What did Diversegy do? First, they secured rates and negotiated on Bowen’s behalf to eliminate any ongoing meter fees, helping Bowen save $50,000 over the next 24-months on their energy expenses. CJ and his team also negotiated the supply arrangement terms to provide flexibility in their energy usage with 100% swing – no matter whether consumption increased or decreased, their negotiated energy supply rate would not change. And they did all of this in partnership with a green energy supplier, allowing Bowen to take full advantage of renewable energy credits available to them. This allowed Bowen to apply for the EPA’s Green Power Partnership.
As Bowen Enterprise Safely Administrator JB Salinas describes it, “CJ definitely made my job easy with the knowledge and excellent service he provided. It was truly a pleasure dealing with someone who actually knew my business, having grown up in franchising himself, and who delivered on the promises he made.”
As he continued, “In fact, as the markets began to shift 12-months into our 24-month agreement, CJ was right there, fighting for every penny – we were able to forward lock our agreement for an additional 36 months and have now reduced our annual energy expenses by an additional 6.5% from our first agreement.”
And that is truly what good partnerships are all about.