Is British Gas Business in hot water?

British Gas is in a spot of bother again. This time, the Business-facing arm of the company, British Gas Business saw its profits tumble 95% in the first half of 2015. This comes after a billing blunder in 2014 which put costs up and impacted on the company’s ability to deliver good customer service.

British Gas owner Centrica said that the delay to customer bills resulted in the build-up of bad debt on top of the additional costs incurred in trying to resolve the issue. Both of these extra expenses have had a detrimental impact on the Business arm’s profits

Although Centrica says that customers are now being served as normal, there is no telling how much reputational damage has been done to the British Gas brand – particularly in an industry where clients value certainty on their monthly bills.

Possible job losses at British Gas

British Gas Business is now poised to move ahead with a cull of employees as the company refocuses on more customer-facing activities.

It seems that while the British Gas Business arm has struggled in recent years, residential energy supply reported a 99% increase in profits up from £265 million to £528 million in the first half of 2015.

It anticipated that the business re shuffling could lead to as many as 6,000 job roles being phased out.