Business energy and utilities for cafés and coffee shops
A café’s bills are driven by coffee machines, chillers and hot water from first thing in the morning. Many cafés also count as microbusinesses, which brings specific protections on energy contracts. We look at your bills, your dates and your card payments together.
- Microbusiness contract rules checked for you
- Coffee cups, grounds and food waste set up for the rules where you trade
- Card machines compared on fees, rental and contract length
How Helios helps cafés and coffee shops.
Small sites, lots of small sales and contracts that are easy to forget. Helios keeps them all in one place, with one person to call.
One contact for the café
Electricity, gas, water, waste and your card machine on one list, with one person who knows your business.
Card fees checked against your sales
Lots of small card sales add up. We read your statements and set transaction fees and terminal rental out line by line.
Cups, grounds and food waste sorted
Collections for coffee grounds, food waste and recycling that fit a small site and the rules where you trade.
End dates that never catch you out
Small cafés are often on microbusiness contracts. We track each end date and notice window and remind you before it closes.
What drives a café’s bills
Machines that stay on
In a GOV.UK energy efficiency campaign, Origin Coffee describes putting timers on its coffee machines as part of managing its energy use.
Source: GOV.UK campaign
Hot water all day
The Carbon Trust says hot water is essential for hospitality businesses but can lead to considerable energy costs.
Source: Carbon Trust (2018)
Small payments, many of them
UK Finance says smaller businesses increasingly accept cards for low-value purchases with no minimum spend, so card fees apply to almost every sale.
Source: UK Finance
What cafés usually need from us
Microbusiness contracts, end dates and notice windows
Ofgem treats you as a microbusiness if you have fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet of no more than £2 million, or if you use no more than 100,000 kWh of electricity or 293,000 kWh of gas a year. Many cafés fall within this.
For microbusinesses, suppliers must limit termination notice on evergreen contracts to 30 days and give you renewal prices before your contract ends. Even so, a fixed contract that ends without a new one in place can move you onto rates that are usually higher, so we check your end date and notice window before anything else.
Source: Ofgem
Coffee cups, coffee grounds and food waste
In England, Simpler Recycling requires workplaces to keep dry recyclables, food waste and general waste apart, and food waste must be collected even if a workplace does not serve food. Cafés with fewer than 10 full-time equivalent employees, counted across the whole business, have until 31 March 2027. Used coffee grounds and tea bags usually go in the food waste stream; your collector will confirm.
In Wales, cafés are named in the workplace recycling guidance, and coffee cups go in the stream for metal, plastic, cartons and similar packaging. Premises producing 5kg or more of food waste in any seven days must present it separately.
Sources: GOV.UK, Welsh Government
VAT on energy for very small cafés
Business energy is usually charged VAT at the standard rate. HMRC’s de minimis rules treat very small supplies as qualifying for a reduced rate: electricity averaging no more than 33 kWh a day (1,000 kWh a month) and gas averaging no more than 145 kWh a day (4,397 kWh a month). A small kiosk or café may fall within these limits; we check what your bills show.
Source: HMRC VAT Notice 701/19
Keeping your paperwork simple
A small café can still have six contracts running. We list them in one place before we quote.
- Electricity and gas: supplier, end date, notice window
- Water retailer and account
- Waste: collections, bins and food waste
- Card machine: rental, fees, contract length
- Broadband and phone line
What to send us
Send what you have and we will ask for anything else we need.
- Your latest electricity bill, and gas bill if you have gas
- Your last one to three card machine statements
- Your waste invoice
- Your broadband or phone bill
- Your water bill, if you trade in England or Scotland
How Helios looks after a café.
Here is how a café’s contracts look in the Helios portal: every service, every end date and every document in one place.
- One contact for every service and every site
- Every end date and notice window tracked, with reminders
- Rates exactly as printed: electricity and gas always quoted separately
- Contracts, documents and meter readings in your Helios portal
Café · High StreetIllustration only- ElectricitySingle rate30/06/2027Live
- GasHot water and heating30/06/2027Live
- Card machineCountertop terminalRolling monthlyLive
- WasteGrounds, food and recycling28/02/2027Renewal due
- WaterSingle supplyRollingLive
One café or several
A single café
Small bills add up. We check each one against your own usage and dates, and tell you plainly if there is nothing worth changing yet.
A small chain
Each café keeps its own meters and dates. We line them up site by site, so renewals can be planned. See multi-site groups.
What we may find
It depends on your bills. These are the things we look for.
- A deemed contract left over from when you moved in
- Card fees that have crept up since you signed
- Collections that do not match the new recycling rules
- A phone line kept only for an old card terminal
Get a quote for your café
Tell us about your business and we’ll be in touch. We check your contract end dates and notice windows before we quote.
Prefer to talk? Call 020 4628 5727, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Frequently asked questions
I only have electricity. Can you still help?
Yes. Many cafés have no gas supply. We quote electricity on its own and look at your other contracts separately.
Do I count as a microbusiness?
Usually if you have fewer than 10 employees and turnover or a balance sheet of no more than £2 million, or use up to 100,000 kWh of electricity or 293,000 kWh of gas a year. We check this with you.
Do coffee grounds count as food waste?
They usually go in the food waste stream. Your collector will confirm what they accept.
Bring your café into one place.
Send us a recent bill and we will start with your contract dates and prices. Add the rest of your services whenever you are ready.
