Alex Polizzi and Npower Combine Powers to Give Small Businesses a Boost

As part of its work to support the UK's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), npower has enlisted the expertise of retail and hospitality guru, Alex Polizzi to deliver inspiration and advice to retail businesses and their suppliers at Autumn Fair International at the NEC in Birmingham on 1 September.

http://www.npower.com/home/index.htmnpower is sponsoring this year's Autumn Fair International, the UK's largest premier retail buying event, as part of its wider commitment to work with SMEs to help them better manage their energy use. In addition, npower is also focused on developing a better understanding of the practical needs of its SME customers - as part of this pledge, its senior management team are undertaking work placements in a range of small businesses across the UK.

npower has partnered with Alex Polizzi due to her experience and knowledge of working in a small, family run business, which now sees her helping SMEs across the country in well-known TV shows The Hotel Inspector and Alex Polizzi: The Fixer.

At the Autumn Fair International event, Alex will be sharing her expertise with retailers in an exclusive seminar and npower will be talking to retailers about their business and energy-related challenges, what support they are looking for from suppliers, as well as how effective energy management can achieve real cost savings for them.

Jason Scagell, director of npower SME, commented: "It is great to be able to work with someone like Alex, who has extensive experience in helping businesses to succeed, and we believe visitors to the show will benefit from Alex's advice. This partnership and our presence at Autumn Fair International are designed to offer retail businesses and their suppliers access to invaluable consultancy and support.

"As a company, we're committed to working closely with SMEs to get a true insight into their daily challenges and what they're looking for from us, so Autumn Fair International provides the ideal opportunity to do this. Our continued focus on the needs of our SME customers will ensure we develop the right products and services for them, so we look forward to talking with businesses at the event so we can continue to do just that."

Alex Polizzi adds: "Independent businesses are vital to the retail sector and the Autumn Fair is an excellent opportunity for these thriving companies to get advice to help them grow. I am delighted to be working with npower to share my own experiences at the exclusive seminar on 1 September."

For more information about npower SME, visit www.npower.com/business

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Note to Editors:

About Autumn Fair International:

Autumn Fair International takes place from 1-4 September at The NEC Birmingham. Volume Hall opens one day early on September 1. Autumn Fair is one of the largest retail trade exhibitions in the UK, second only to sister event Spring Fair International. Autumn Fair International is the premier retail buying opportunity taking place in the UK during the second half of the year, where more than 1,500 suppliers across 11 show sectors launch in the region of 60,000 new products to the trade*.

*Autumn Fair International 2012 attracted 30,949 buyers from 73 countries and some £1.1 billion was spent by retailers as a direct result of visiting the show. Over 13 per cent of buyers who attended the show had an annual budget of over £250,000.

For more information contact:

npower Press Office
T: 0845 070 2807
E: press.office@npower.com

- npower is one of the top energy suppliers to the UK business market, serving over 238,000 small to medium sized enterprise sites and around 17,000 industrial and commercial customers, with over 100,000 sites
- npower is dedicated to helping UK businesses use energy more efficiently and therefore spend less money on their bills. We aim to have a positive impact on the communities we serve and reduce our customers' carbon footprint whilst always improving our service to our customers.
- npower specialises in risk management solutions, including market-leading flexible energy purchasing, energy efficiency, and broader energy management functions, tailored to every size of business.
- npower is committed to helping its small business customers to improve their energy efficiency. npower smartstart offers business customers advice and guidance on reducing energy consumption. New business customers receive an energy monitor designed to improve their consumption awareness as well as access to a dedicated energy efficiency telephone helpline and website.
- For major energy users, npower offers multi-utility management consultancy to enable organisations to improve efficiencies right across the procurement/consumption chain.
- npower customers include BT, Wembley Stadium plc, AstraZeneca and Sainsbury's.