Lampiris Takeover 'Boosts Smaller Rivals'

During the first two weeks after the take-over purchase by the French major Total, Walloon newspapers said that about 5,000 customers had deserted Belgian power and natural gas retailer Lampiris. Smaller retailers who welcomed the former Lampiris customers were the source of the data, but Lampiris says it was less than that and puts some nuances. In Belgium it has 840,000 customers.

In Belgium, Lampiris made its reputation by positioning itself as a local and, for electricity, 100% green player. All other Belgian gas and power retailers with a market share of more than 3% were owned by foreign groups: mostly French Engie and EDF and Italian Eni.

Lampiris also gained a favourable reputation of social consciousness by original actions, such as an SMS-message service to alert households to reduce their energy consumption at moments that peak consumption could possibly lead to a partial black-out.

Many of its customers had chosen Lampiris for its local, green and social aspects. Almost immediately after the take-over, people complained on social media and predicted they would turn to another supplier. According to the actual information, most customers who declined went to small, still local players, such as Klinkenberg and Mega, whose selling-point is low prices. 

"A loss of about 3,000 – our own counting – customers remains within the normal monthly fluctuations," says Tom Van de Cruys, CEO at Lampiris. "We are not worrying. We maintain our low prices policy and our green profile. The management remains in Belgium. Even the invoice administration for our household consumers in France is being done in Belgium and will remain here. The contacts with the French households are managed by an external call centre. How Lampiris' very small French B2B- division will be organised in the future still is under consideration."

French market

When the take-over was announced, almost nobody mentioned Lampiris' French activities. "Our number of customers in France was growing steadily, but still very small compared to the total French market. We have about 220,000 French customers, mostly for gas. The real market liberalisation there proceeded much faster for gas than for electricity. Offering really low electricity prices became possible only recently."

Van de Cruys admits that the French market share was attractive for Total. "But it  was only one of the motives to buy Lampiris. Total doesn’t need us to be a major player on the French natural gas market. It was especially interested in our business model and in our marker approach. Also for Lampiris the deal is beneficial, as our vertical integration becomes much stronger."

Koen Mortelmans