Wales and rugby go together like, well, leeks and potatoes.

And if you were on the lookout for the quintessential Welsh rugby club, Gorseinon RFC might just be it: 143 years of history at the Welfare Ground, framed jerseys from club legends on the wall, free-flowing pints at the bar. Even the completely standard, not out-of-the-ordinary at all stuffed lion’s head observing proceedings.

It has all of that.

But none of that history survives on sentiment alone.

Tough tackles

Behind the heritage is a 12-person committee who understand what protecting a legacy requires. Dark Welsh nights and sideways rain need strong floodlights, preferably turned on. Cold players need hot showers. And tradition alone doesn't pay for what these things cost: the past only stays alive if the numbers work today.

A lot of organisations accept their energy bill as an unavoidable tax on existing. Yes it’s opaque, complex, bloated with hidden margins and fees, almost impossible to decipher, but it is what it is. Gorseinon took a different view.

They wanted clear costs, complete transparency and an energy model that worked as smartly as they did. And above all they wanted a bill less threatening than an All Black in game-mode. So they took a bet on tem early, becoming one of our very first customers.

Markup in the sin bin

Instead of routing Gorseinon through the legacy market, tem bypassed it, connecting the Welfare Ground directly to our pool of UK generators. They got itemised transparency. Lower bills. No nasty surprises arriving three months down the line.

The impact hit the scoreboard immediately:

“Switching to tem cut our energy bills by 40%—saving us £12,000 a year. That money goes straight back into the club: more kids on the pitch, more training sessions, more investment in the community.”

— John Watkins, Chairman, Gorseinon RFC

Energy stopped being a gamble. For the first time, the club had predictability and more money to play with.

Results on the board

£12,000 isn’t abstract. For Gorseinon, it was clawing back over a third of their annual turnover and putting it directly back where it belongs.

It meant junior subs didn’t get hiked. It kept the mower running, bought kit and ensured the club never had to choose between a warm clubhouse and balancing the books.

Gorseinon didn’t join tem to pioneer a movement; they just wanted someone to stop overcharging them and play it straight. But by taking a punt on an alternative when we were just getting started, they helped to prove that this alternative works.

They took a bet on our model long before we had thousands of names on the roster. That is what tem1000 is about: celebrating the businesses that took that leap with us. Now their energy works for them, not against them.