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Ryan Bridge: Flick Electric on its last legs is a sign winter's coming · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: If what they're saying about Flick Electric shutting up shop
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: is true, and I've got no reason to doubt it,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: then sadly it should come as no surprise to us.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: This is a business desk report. Flickers owned by z
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: So far they're not saying anything, but it's one of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the smaller retailers. They help keep the bigger Gen Taylors
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: on us their forty thousand customers. Does Flick have well
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: had potentially but the cracks started showing ages ago, like
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: winter twenty twenty one, they closed their books to new customers.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: The great wholesale price crunch hit them hard. And last
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: year again wholesale price is shot up above retail and
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you can't run a business like that. We were warned
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: then about what is happening now. It means the little
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: guys basically can't hold on. The problem for them is hedging.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: This is their big problem. They can't afford the cost
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of hedging during a crunch for new customers, and that
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: means least choice for us, and we know what that
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: typically does to prices. And unlike Air New Zealand and
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: the regional airfares debate in the past week, there is
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: in this situation, a quick fix for the problem, at
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: least a partial one, and guess what the government announced
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: such a fix too much fanfare in February. They said
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: that the big gen tailors would no longer be allowed
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: to offer sweetheart deals to their own lot. Transparency about
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: these deals would be forced upon them. We had the
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Minister on at the time. Now, the generator part has
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: been favoring the Taylor part, but not the other smaller players,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: so they were going to do something about it. The
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: odds are basically stacked against Flick and the little guys
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: and out Flix the lights. So we've known about this
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: on Fairness since at least twenty twenty one for Flick,
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: and we've had belatedly an announcement that something might change,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: but years later, no real change and another retailer bites
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the dust customers off to you guessed at Meridian, one
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: of the big gent tailors. Losing Flick, if true, is
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: another sign that winter is coming, and I can't see
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: anybody in much of a hurry to do much of
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: anything about it. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,