Administrators appointed at a Swansea headquartered energy company have provided more details about the collapse of the firm and the loss of almost 300 jobs. The outcome for creditors has also been revealed.
On 9 January 2026, James Saunders and Michael Lennon of KR8 Advisory Limited were appointed joint administrators of Consumer Energy Solutions (CES).
The company, which operated from leased offices in Swansea and also had leased warehouses in Treorchy and Bangor had 293 employees, of which 288 were made redundant on the date of the administrators’ appointment. The remaining five members of staff were retained to assist the joint administrators with the wind down process. Three of the five retained staff have also since been made redundant.
It was part of the wider City Energy Group, ultimately owned by Cairngorm Capital GP III Limited, and provided installation services delivering energy efficient services to lower socioeconomic households, primarily funded through government initiatives. Energy efficient services and measures provided by the company including wall and roof insulation, heating controls, air and ground source heat pumps, solar panels and smart meters.
CES, typically, would source customers primarily through online advertising and an outbound call centre and would then subcontract the initial survey to third party contractors.
City Energy Network Limited (CEN) acted as the managing agent and obtained the funding for the work via the Energy Company Obligation Scheme, completed the installation work and obtained appropriate certifications. CEN has framework agreements with Utility Providers in order to obtain the funding for the installation work.
ECO4 is a government-backed scheme which puts the onus of funding energy efficiency services on medium and large energy companies by allocating to them a number of Average Bill Saving (ABS) points that they are required to deliver. ABS points factor in a house’s floor area and the improvements in its household efficiency from installing energy efficient measures.
The energy companies subcontract the delivery of this to managing agents at agreed rates per ABS point.
However, administrators said that following recent changes in the market and the resulting financial underperformance of the business, the directors of the company concluded that the business, in its current form, was “not operationally or financially sustainable”.
These challenges were compounded by the UK Government’s decision not to extend ECO4 beyond its expiry in March 2026.
A sale of certain assets of the company was completed on 16 January 2026 to City Energy Network Limited.
KR8 Advisory Limited had initially been approached by the group on 18 November 2025 to provide advice on the options available given the financial and operational challenges faced.
The joint administrators statement of proposals report said that in terms of secondary creditors, according to the Statement of Affairs provided by the directors on the company, HMRC was owed £226,585 in respect of unpaid VAT, PAYE and CIS at the date of administration. HMRC has subsequently submitted a secondary preferential claim of £299,346.
The report added non-preferential unsecured creditors were owed £6.7m by the company.
