Boilerjuice to regain its Independence?

By John Swindells 04 Oct 2011 | Comment
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After a colossal volume of criticism about its impartiality and opaqueness, Boilerjuice may become independent once again.

In 2005 Paul and Sarah Ward formed Boilerjuice as an independent group buyer for heating oil consumers, and sold it to oil distribution conglomerate DCC Energy around 2008. Ever since then, the service has come under suspicion of favouring the many 'brands' that DCC owns, and of only really being a sales front rather than a price comparison and group buying service.

The Daily Telegraph now reports that DCC is selling Boilerjuice back to its managing director, Paul Ward. In the report by Rowena Mason on 4 October 2011 [DCC to sell heating oil price comparison website Boilerjuice after OFT criticism], the company made the following statement:

Boilerjuice was, and remains, an independent price comparison website, comparing our prices and those of hundreds of independent suppliers to offer buyers the best prices in their area. Unfortunately, this independence was questioned by some quarters of the media, albeit incorrectly, because of our ownership of the site. We have therefore sold Boilerjuice to its managing director, Paul Ward, and wish him continued success at giving consumers a truly independent means of finding the best prices.

Clearly DCC Energy played its game with Boilerjuice as long as it could, but with the OFT report looming on price fixing and lack of competition in the domestic market, it must regard its position as untenable. At the very least, DCC is just trying to defelect attention away from the fact that it owns 40 or more heating oil supplier brands.

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2 Comments

by carole moroni on 06 October 2011
Do DCC think people are stupid remember to ask the question when getting a quote are you connected to the DCC group dont see how they can be called the largest indepentdent oil company when they own so many companies& not honest with the customers
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by David J Brown on 05 October 2011
A further note to add, DCC / GB Oils also uses http://www.heatingoil.co.uk and http://fueloildirect.co.uk which really proves my point. DCC / GB oils are still very much in the comparison site business and can still use all their own distributors to provide quotes which are all directed by their HQ in Warrington.

So this was just a publicity stunt to rid themselves of a brand that was, and I'll be fair, and say good, but at the same time had drawn in so much controversy for being the bad boys.

You don't see any news items about getting rid of the other two. I hasten to add that I have started a new website called http://www.heatingoilshop.com that is in its final stages of development. The key point about this site is it puts back the control to the customer and supplier. It has been developed by me as a 31 year veteran of the oil industry with experience in commercial, retail, lube and domestic oil experience gained in the UK and US. I have worked for Murco Petroleum, Chevron Oil UK, TotalFinaElf, Ultramar Golden Eagle, Q8 Petroleum, Repsol Petroleum and ConocoPhillips. Not necessarily in that order. So, I know the market place and individuals so watch this space for further news.

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