The UK’s largest renewable energy product distributor Segen has appointed a new managing director, and the executive has told pv magazine he plans to deepen the company’s finance offer and continue with a program of technology and e-commerce improvements.
David Hope brings more than 25 years of experience in construction, manufacturing and specialist distribution to the role. Speaking about his first months as the managing director at Segen, Hope described a busy fact-finding period. “I joined the business at one of the busiest times of the year, but for me it’s been amazing,” Hope said. The new managing director highlighted Segen’s customer showcase event, a three-day Solar Energy UK networking event and site visits across the company’s offices and distribution centers as opportunities to get a fast grounding in the business.
Technology investment is going to be high on the list of priorities, Hope said. “Segen has been really renowned for having a great portal. But I think the technology has advanced, so what we’re looking to do is take that to the next level,” he said. Segen has launched a new e-commerce platform and is now onboarding its first few hundred customers, alongside a design tool for residential PV, inverter and storage installations that links through to finance and training options that can be white labelled by installers.
Training support for installers will also remain a focus. Segen’s training facility in Medway, England, has already qualified 70 new installers since courses began in January 2025, and trained more than 300 people in total, running in small class sizes of two to eight. Hope told pv magazine he wants to use that capacity to upskill Segen’s existing installer base as adjacent technologies, such as heat pumps demand, new skill sets.
On the broader market, Hope said full home electrification is the logical next step for the distributor, which already sells air-source heat pumps, EV charging equipment and home intelligence systems alongside its core solar and energy storage lines. “I totally believe that the next stage for us will be the move to full home electrification,” said Hope. “That’s just a sensible way that the market is growing.”
Finance is another focus area. Segen launched a new commercial and industrial (C&I) segment finance product for installers in 2025 and Hope told pv magazine a new finance solution for the residential market is coming soon. “We are due to launch a residential financing product via our proposal tool in the coming months, in partnership with a leading digital and renewables lender,” he said.
Segen’s existing finance offer has also been streamlined, according to Hope, who noted the distributor has managed to automate Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) related paperwork for commercial finance applications, cutting workload for installers from around one hour per application to a few clicks. Hope also said Segen’s pipeline of commercial deals for finance was growing steadily and now running into the hundreds of millions of pounds.
Asked about plug-in balcony solar products – which the UK government is in the process of regulating for sale to consumers – Hope offered some qualified optimism. “We view it as an additional, new market. It’s not, we don’t think, a threat to rooftops. We think it’s a good product range with a couple of caveats,” he said, adding that Segen wants products from established manufacturers installed by qualified electricians.
On supplier risk, following a high-profile insolvency elsewhere in the UK market, Hope said no company is immune from macroeconomic pressure, pointing to Segen’s vetting process for manufacturing partners as a first line of defense. He also said Segen has stayed engaged with customers affected by supplier insolvency, rather than stepping back. “We haven’t walked away, we are still in discussions around helping customers,” he said.
On stock and pricing, Hope told pv magazine that Segen holds significant inventory across its 250,000 sq ft warehouse against roughly 20,000 stock keeping units (SKUs), with lead times of around 12 weeks on some products from Asia. Hope said the company expects energy storage prices to rise later this year due to government policy in China, following similar movements already seen in panel pricing. The managing director said providing customers with early notice on price movements was one of the main levers available to the distributor to manage volatility.
The post Segen shifts beyond solar distribution with new finance tools and full home electrification strategy appeared first on pv magazine Global.
