Almost every senior B2B energy executive surveyed in Europe believes their organisation has an accurate view of its margins, yet new research suggests many are operating with a false sense of confidence.



The inaugural Energy Margin Intelligence Index, commissioned by Gorilla and conducted by Censuswide among 600 senior energy executives across the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, found that more than 90 per cent of respondents are confident in the accuracy of their organisation's margin reporting.



However, the same research exposes a striking disconnect between confidence and operational reality.



While confidence is almost universal, the majority of executives admit they can only reconcile reported sales to actual financial margins ‘usually, but with some gaps or delays’, rather than consistently and accurately. At the same time, three quarters (74 per cent) of respondents say siloed teams act as a barrier to margin optimisation, highlighting widespread structural issues that undermine organisations’ ability to understand profitability in real time.



The findings suggest many energy retailers believe they have accurate visibility of commercial performance while relying on fragmented processes, delayed reconciliation and disconnected teams to manage one of their most critical business metrics.



The research also found:

• Most B2B energy firms take more than three years to bring a new energy product from inception to billing at scale
• Most executives estimate that between six per cent and ten per cent of annual revenue is at risk because of poor margin visibility and slow decision-making
• The majority of organisations still manage margin retrospectively rather than as a real-time strategic capability

“What surprised us wasn't the confidence itself but how little it matches the operational reality beneath it,” commented Ruben Van den Bossche, CEO of Gorilla. “If organisations believe they are making decisions based on precise margin intelligence when, in reality, they're often working from incomplete, inconsistent or delayed information, this creates the risky Margin Confidence Paradox.



“In today's energy market, where volatility has become the norm, that's no longer just an operational inefficiency - it is a commercial and, potentially, existential risk. The companies that outperform over the next decade won't simply collect more data; they'll be the ones who can identify and stem margin leakage by seeing, understanding and acting on margin in real time.”



The Energy Margin Intelligence Index 2026 surveyed 600 senior executives across Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. The study benchmarks how effectively energy retailers can understand, monitor and act on margin across pricing, trading, risk, settlements and finance.

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