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UK Restaurants

Your kitchen burns more cash than you think.

UK restaurants waste 30-50% of their energy spend on outdated tariffs, wrong suppliers, and equipment running when it shouldn't. We find it. You keep it. Free health check, no obligation to switch.

Where the money goes
24-48 hour turnaroundMulti-site rates availableService never interrupted

Get your free restaurant audit

Takes two minutes. No credit check.

35-45%
Share of restaurant energy bills attributable to cooking equipment
40-55%
Typical savings range on cooking gas with the right supplier and tariff
24-48 hr
Time from bill upload to plain-English breakdown
Where you're overpaying

Energy is the cost you can't see until it's too late.

Six things we almost always find when we audit an independent UK restaurant's energy bill.

1

Gas hobs and grills left on between covers, sometimes for hours, silently consuming a fortune in gas that's never used for cooking.

2

Walk-in fridges and chillers running 2-4°C colder than they need to. Each degree below spec adds roughly 5% to refrigeration costs.

3

Extraction systems pulling expensive heated air outside while the heating fights to keep up, both meters running, neither winning.

4

Contracts auto-renewed at "out-of-contract" rates that can be 2-3x current market price. Most operators don't notice for months.

5

Standing charges that have quietly risen 40%+ in the last 18 months, almost always negotiable, almost never challenged.

6

Generic tariffs that don't match your actual service hours, day-part demand, or seasonal swings. Lunch-only restaurants pay for empty evenings.

Restaurant savings calculator

See what your restaurant could actually save.

Restaurants average a 45% reduction on optimised bills. Drag the slider to your real monthly spend and see your number.

Your restaurant

Pre-set to UK restaurant industry averages.

£3,000
per month
Estimated annual saving
£16,200
Range: £12,150 – £20,250
Current annual cost£36,000
After Switchgrid audit£19,800
Get my exact figure →
Estimates based on Assured Energy partner network averages. Your actual saving depends on contract terms, usage profile, and supplier rates and will be confirmed in your free audit.
Where the money goes

Restaurant energy, line by line.

Typical share of total energy spend for an independent UK restaurant, and the savings we usually find in each area.

Cooking equipment

Gas hobs, grills, ovens, fryers

40-55% savings typical
Refrigeration

Walk-ins, chillers, display units

25-35% savings typical
HVAC & extraction

Air conditioning, extraction fans

30-50% savings typical
Lighting

Dining room, kitchen, signage

60-75% savings typical
How we save you money

Four specific levers. Real numbers.

Generic "we'll find savings" isn't enough. Here are the four specific things we do for every UK restaurant, and the typical reduction we deliver on each.

📊

Unit rate renegotiation

We monitor wholesale prices and renegotiate before your contract auto-renews, saving you from getting trapped on out-of-contract rates that can be 2-3x market.

25-40% off unit rate
🧮

Standing charge audit

Standing charges have risen 40% in 18 months on average. They're almost always negotiable, but suppliers won't volunteer better terms unless asked.

15-30% off standing charges
⏰

Tariff timing

We match your tariff to your actual service pattern, lunch-heavy, evening-heavy, or seasonal, instead of paying flat rates that ignore your trade.

15-25% on off-peak waste
🔍

Equipment usage audit

We identify gas hobs, fridges, and HVAC running outside service hours that quietly burn cash overnight, every night.

10-20% on operational waste
VAT & compliance

What restaurants need to know about VAT.

Restaurants are commercial consumers under UK VAT rules. Here's what that means in practice.

20%
Standard VAT rate on restaurant energy

Restaurants pay the standard 20% VAT rate on commercial energy. This applies to both gas and electricity for kitchen, dining, refrigeration, lighting, and HVAC.

VAT on business energy is normally reclaimable through your VAT returns, but it still flows through your cash position and your margins. The cost before VAT is where audit savings show up.

Climate Change Levy (CCL) also applies in full to restaurants. It's a flat-rate tax on each kWh used. We can't reduce the rate, but we can make sure you're not paying CCL on units you don't need (e.g. equipment left running outside service).

What we check on every restaurant audit: VAT calculation correctness, supplier billing accuracy, standing charges, unit rates against the current market, and tariff structure against your actual service pattern.

Real save · Real shop

What this looks like in practice.

Through our partner network, we've worked with hundreds of independent UK food businesses. Here's one example.

Restaurants & Retail

A Welsh Nisa retailer thought his bills were fixed. He was quietly racking up arrears.

A first-time independent retailer had upgraded his store and meter, but didn't realise his "fixed tariff" didn't actually cover his real usage. Hidden arrears were building. The partner network restructured the contract, spread the cost, and put renewal monitoring in place.

Read the case study →
Nisa
Preferred energy partner
Resolved
One structured plan
Frequently asked

Restaurant operator questions.

Will switching disrupt my restaurant service?
No. Only the company billing you changes. Your kitchen, gas, electricity, and refrigeration all run exactly as they did before. No engineer visits, no equipment changes.
My contract doesn't end for 8 months. Can you still help?
Yes. We can either pre-arrange a better deal to start when your contract ends, or look at a "blend and extend" tariff that lowers your rate now in exchange for a longer term. Both options work within your existing contract, no penalties.
Do restaurants pay VAT on energy?
Yes, UK restaurants pay the standard 20% VAT on commercial energy. It's normally reclaimable through your VAT returns, but it still flows through your P&L and matters to your margins.
I rent my premises. Does that affect anything?
Usually not, as long as the energy account is in your business's name and you're the one paying the bills. We'll confirm this on the audit and flag anything unusual.
Do you handle multiple restaurants?
Yes. Multi-site operators often unlock significantly better rates through pooled negotiation. We work with restaurant groups from 2 to 50+ sites.
How do you make money if the audit is free?
Suppliers pay us a commission when we switch a customer. We earn nothing unless we save you money, so we only recommend changes that actually improve your position.
Start here

See what your restaurant could save.

Takes 2 minutes. We come back to you within 24-48 hours with a plain-English audit. No obligation to switch.

Get your free restaurant audit

Takes two minutes. No credit check.

⏱

24-48 hour turnaround

Send a bill, get a plain-English breakdown within two working days.

£

No-win, no-fee

You pay nothing for the audit. We earn supplier commission only if we save you money.

⚡

Zero kitchen disruption

Only the company billing you changes. Service runs exactly as it did before.

✓

Broad market comparison

30+ UK energy & water suppliers reviewed every audit. No tied tariffs, no preferential relationships.