Serving the Teesside Business Community | 37
Pictures by Martin Walker
POWER
Michael McGeary
meets the men
behind the energy
firm making waves at
Hartlepool Marina...
Bob Moore – the Utility Alliance managing director
who was once a driver in the Royal Logistics Corps.
H
artlepool has been synonymous
with energy ever since plans were
revealed to build a nuclear power
station in the town almost 50
years ago.
But it’s now hitting the headlines again
as the home of Utility Alliance, the big new
name in the energy consultancy market,
which already employs 246 people just two
years after being established.
While that’s an eye-catching achievement
it comes as no surprise to industry insiders
who know all about the three men behind the
firm.
Chief executive officer Darren Sutherland,
58, managing director Bob Moore, 38, and his
brother, chief operating officer Phill Moore,
37, hatched the idea to start up on their own
while working together for the UK’s biggest
energy consultancy.
“We all believed we could do a much better
job ourselves,” says Bob. “We adopted a
similar business model but introduced some
fresh thinking as well.”
“We wanted to take all the good things
we’d seen, leave the sloppiness behind and
add in some good ideas of our own,” adds
Darren.
They used their own savings as start-
up funding, although Bob admits the
sums involved were a “drop in the ocean”
compared to the figures the business is
generating now.
“We knew the people to talk to and they
knew us,” he says. “That meant we could
get money up front from suppliers, which we
then reinvested.
“People said we’d bitten off more >>