March 11, 2026
Press Release
When Wellingtonians were asked to choose their favourite local business back in November, they didn't pick their trusted tradie or local boutique. They picked their power company.
Toast Electric won the People's Choice Award at the Wellington Regional Business Excellence Awards in November 2025 – the only award in the competition decided entirely by public vote. For a company that's barely three years old, it's a great result. It comes alongside another milestone: this week Toast has now signed up its 3,000th customer.
Those 3,000 customers aren't just switching providers for a better deal. Although Toast’s rates are competitive, the main drawcard is their community-focused model. Customers are choosing to put their power bills towards a movement that directly helps people facing energy hardship.
Toast is New Zealand's only not-for-profit electricity retailer. Every dollar of profit from its general-income customers goes straight to low-income households enrolled in their Energy Wellbeing programme. These customers receive a free wraparound service: discounted electricity costs over winter, a home assessment checking insulation, ventilation and hot water, free energy-saving products as well as advice on how to reduce costs.
For general-income customers, they pay their power bill as they normally would – with no extra costs – and help a family that's struggling. As one of Toast’s new customers, Mary*, explains – it's straightforward:
“I moved to Toast Electric when Frank Energy was shutting down… can’t recommend them highly enough. Very well priced for the normal consumer like me, but to be providing such an incredible service to those less fortunate and being nonprofit… sat extremely well with my values. Not surprised they’re receiving so many plaudits.”
The initiative was set up in September 2022 by Wellington's Sustainability Trust, partly because energy hardship is a huge problem in New Zealand, and partly because plenty of people wanted their money to do something useful beyond keeping their own lights on – at no extra cost, customers can support their own neighbours.
Reflecting on this week’s milestone, Phil Squire, Toast’s Fair Energy Manager explains:
“Over the last 23 years, Sustainability Trust has supported households to improve the warmth and health of their homes. We found many folks struggling with high power costs, and sometimes just no way to get connected. Toast Electric was our response – a bottom-up community-centred retailer where 100% of profits are used to ensure everyone can get this essential service. I’m thrilled that it’s taking off – for such a small area of coverage, we’re already at 3000 connections. It’s huge.”
As Phil alludes to, Toast is only available in certain parts of the country (for now). Customers can sign up in Wellington, Hutt, Kāpiti, Wairarapa, Horowhenua as well as Christchurch and mid-Canterbury. The team has plans to expand, but this depends on how quickly they’re taking on new customers.
“We have to make sure we scale sustainably. We’re a really small team, so we need to make sure we have operational capability lined up before we jump into any new areas. It’s also important to us to have great relationships established with community providers in any new area, for our Energy Wellbeing whānau. But we’d love to keep expanding, of course, and we can’t wait to offer Toast to more households.
The timing of Toast’s success is interesting. The government's currently worried about competition dwindling in the electricity market, with multiple independent retailers folding last year. Here's Toast – tiny, independent, swimming against the tide – proving that people want alternatives to companies structured to deliver profits to shareholders. Growing from zero to 3,000 customers in three years with a shoestring marketing budget and restricted service areas suggests there's an appetite for a different approach.
The electricity market is largely controlled by a small number of major generator-retailers ('gentailers'). Toast is working collaboratively with industry partners – which includes gentailers – to establish more stable long-term wholesale power prices, ultimately benefiting those enrolled in Toast's Energy Wellbeing programme. Even within the current market, gentailers agree there's room for more customer choice and a compassionate solution to energy hardship.
With over 400 home performance visits and more than 500,000 kWh of power donated to their Energy Wellbeing customers so far, Toast is seeding a spark of change in Aotearoa.
*First name used only, to protect customer privacy.