Sorted between appointments

From the backwash to the dryers, a salon’s meter barely stops all day. Mallo.uk founders Matt Chaplin and Lloyd Russell explain hidden broker commission, fixed fees and sorting an energy contract between appointments.

Let’s start with the story behind Mallo.uk. Where did the idea come from, and what needed fixing?

I have worked in business energy for years, and the thing that always struck me was how difficult the industry had made something that should be quite simple.

A small business owner does not want to become an energy expert. They want to know three things: what are my options, what am I paying, and can I sort it without spending my day on the phone?

Traditionally, though, that means brokers, sales calls, confusing rates, hidden commission and a lot of faff.

Mallo.uk was built to remove all of that. Upload your bill, see prices from participating suppliers, choose what works for you and complete everything online. No sales calls, no hidden fees, no faff.

Most salon owners know comparison sites for insurance or household bills, but business energy works differently. Why doesn’t the traditional model give the transparency they might expect?

With business energy, what looks like a comparison service is not necessarily the same thing consumers are used to.

A lot of services are effectively lead-generation models. You enter your details and, rather than simply being able to see the market and make your own decision, you end up receiving a sales call.

Broker commission can also be built into the energy rate, so it is not always obvious to the business owner exactly what they are paying for that service.

We wanted Mallo.uk to feel completely different. We provide access to participating suppliers’ base prices and charge a simple fixed fee of £1 per meter, per day. You can see your options and make the decision yourself, online, without someone trying to close you over the phone.

It is about putting the power, excuse the energy pun, back in the hands of the business owner.

A salon runs on energy all day, from hot water at the backwash to dryers, styling tools, laundry, heating and lighting. How does that constant usage affect the importance of getting the right contract?

That is exactly why energy matters so much to salons.

Individually, you might not think twice about switching on a dryer or washing another load of towels, but when hot water, dryers, lighting and heating are running together across long opening hours, it adds up.

Here is something particularly relevant to a business using a lot of energy: if a broker’s commission has been added to every kWh you consume, the more energy you use, the more commission you can end up paying.

That is one reason we chose a fixed-fee model. Our fee is £1 per meter, per day. We do not believe it should keep increasing just because your salon gets busier.

One of your case studies is a barber who saved over £3,000 on electricity. What does that example tell salon owners about checking what is available at renewal?

It is a great example because it was a real business with a real bill.

They uploaded their bill to Mallo.uk and the platform compared the rates they were currently paying against the prices available to them. The difference was more than £3,000.

I would not suggest every barber or salon is going to save £3,000. That would not be responsible, because every business is different. What it does demonstrate is that it is worth checking.

When you are running a salon, it is very easy to let an energy renewal fall down the priority list. But spending a few minutes checking what is available could make a meaningful difference to your costs.

Salon owners are hands-on with clients all day and rarely have time for sales calls. How have you designed Mallo.uk around that?

Very little is asked of them, deliberately. We built Mallo.uk for people who are busy running businesses, not people who want to spend their day buying energy.

Take a photo of your bill or upload it, and Mallo.uk does the heavy lifting in the background. It reads the information, validates the supply and presents the available options from our participating suppliers. If you find a deal you want, you can complete the contract digitally.

The entire journey can be done in a couple of minutes.

You can do it between appointments with a coffee in your hand. No phone calls, no forms and nobody chasing you afterwards.

For a salon owner whose contract is coming up for renewal, when should they start looking and what do they need to hand?

Do not leave it until the contract has already ended. Once a business falls onto out-of-contract rates, energy can become unnecessarily expensive very quickly.

The good news is you do not need to gather loads of paperwork to start looking. Have your latest business energy bill to hand, go to Mallo.uk, upload it, and the platform takes it from there. Within seconds you can start seeing the options available to your business.

The philosophy behind Mallo.uk is simple: spend less time sorting your energy and more time running your business. That is what small business owners should expect from technology in 2026.