Centrica-owned Hive continues in the red despite sales rise
Hive, the smart home devices brand owned by Centrica, continued in the red despite its revenue rising during its latest financial year.
The business has reported a pre-tax loss of £28.2m for 2023, having also made a loss of £25.6m in 2022.
Hive has never made a pre-tax profit since it was launched over a decade ago.
Since being founded, the business has racked up a pre-tax loss of almost £600m.
Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also show that Hive’s revenue increased in 2023 from £49.8m to £62.3m.
The latest revenue figure is Hive’s highest since the £66.3m it achieved in 2019. That year it posted a pre-tax loss of £127.1m.
Hive part of Centrica’s net zero push
A statement signed off by the board said: “Centrica Hive continues to be focused on driving the UK’s transition to a greener, net zero future via providing residential customers with green energy solutions and insights to better help them manage and reduce their energy consumption.
“Currently, this mainly manifests via our strong market position, providing heating solutions (smart thermostats and radiator valves) and subscription sales that underpin energy insights and automation.
“Additionally, it remains part of Centrica’s wider net zero ambitions to continue to grow across the wider home energy management space via alternative technologies (EV charging, electrified heating, solar) and additional technologies to optimise both energy insight, consumption and cost for our customers.”
Earlier this year, CityAM reported that Centrica had issued a “strong 2023 financial result” as the company’s retail division saw a sharp jump in profits for the year.
In the company’s annual results, it revealed its operating profit for 2023 came in at £2.8bn, down on 2022’s figure of £3.3bn.
British Gas Energy saw profits skyrocket from £72m to £751m, slightly exceeding analyst expectations of £747m.
This offset a decline in profit from the group’s other businesses, namely Centrica Energy, which deals in energy trading and asset management, where profits almost halved from £1.4bn in 2022 to £774m.