AN energy and utilities consultancy has added a little 'je ne sais quoi' to its offering after winning a two-year contract with the world's fifth largest oil and gas group.

Utilitywise, based at South Shields, has expanded into the French market and will be working with Tegaz, a division of Total S.A.

The win follows a successful six-month trial and will see Utilitywise expand its French team from six to 35 staff, who will sell Tegaz gas supply products across the Channel.

Work will be carried out from Utilitywise’s head office in South Shields and the team will consist of French nationals operating on French time.

The team will use a bespoke management reporting system for the French market, which has been designed in-house and was named Hugo after the famous French author of Les Miserables.

Adam Thompson, chief operating officer at Utilitywise, said: “We are delighted to have secured this contract which underpins the strength of our relationship with Total and provides us with the building blocks for a longer term expansion into France.

“This contract is a great example of the scalability of the Utilitywise business model and after deregulation in 2004, the French market presents a particularly appealing geography for us. We have been steadily growing our international sales capabilities to address this opportunity.”

The company, which helps firms tackle soaring electricity, gas and water bills, hopes to secure more business customers in this country and overseas, with focus on France and Germany. It became the first North East company in five years to list on the stock market last June and said revenues rose by 25% to £14.6m and pre-tax profits jumped by 23% to £4.3m in the year to the end of July.

The company has enjoyed success since it was founded six years ago by father and son team, Geoff and Adam Thompson.

It has a nationwide client base of 10,000 businesses ranging from the high street to multi-national companies that cover the whole of the UK.