Boilerjuice sold back to Paul Ward as DCC distances itself from the website
It was disclosed in the Daily Telegraph yesterday that DCC intends to sell the website Boilerjuice back to one of its original owners (and current Managing Director), Paul Ward. DCC is rumoured to have paid over £1 million for the site and this major U-turn comes just a few weeks after OFT criticisms and before a formal report into the heating oil market later this month.
The Telegraph quotes a DCC representative as saying “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.”
The phrase “hundreds of independent suppliers” seems a bit odd -there are only about 250 members of the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers. A large proportion of these are not independent, others have multiple memberships for the different regions they cover and a large number do not supply heating oil at all eg the oil tank companies that are members.