Andrew Pilley

On 20 April 2016, Poolfoot Farm was officially unveiled by Sir Alex Ferguson.[10] An elite facility for clubs on the Fylde Coast, Poolfoot Farm has seen an investment of £10m from Andy. The home of the FTFC first team, through to local grassroots clubs, whether it's pitch hire, leagues or kid’s football, Poolfoot Farm has something for everyone, all with an emphasis on community use.

In May 2019, Fleetwood Town Football Club announced the launch of its own International Football Academy – FTIFA.[11] Based at Poolfoot Farm, the academy is open to aspiring players from around the world, and through a series of four, 12 and 24-week residential courses, FTIFA provides the opportunity to train within a professional football club environment and share the same facilities as all the club’s professional and academy teams. Players receive expert UEFA-qualified coaching and bespoke training programmes tailored to their individual skills and development needs, as well as the opportunity to showcase their talents in front of scouts representing clubs in the UK and abroad.

Following the deregulation of the UK energy market, having spotted a gap in the market for new business start-ups or movers who often struggle to secure energy contracts larger suppliers due to their credit profile, Andy set up his gas brokerage business, Business Energy Solutions Ltd, and his sister Michelle Davidson joined him 18 months later.

In February 2005, a gas supply licence was approved for Business Energy Solutions Ltd.

After receiving a licence from Ofgem, BES Utilities became a licensed gas shipper in March 2008.[12]

In June 2009, Andy set up and acquired an electricity supply licence for BES Commercial Electricity Ltd (both companies now form the BES Utilities group). Since then, the companies have seen significant growth and they are now one of the largest employers on the Fylde coast, with over 200 staff based at its Head Office in Fleetwood, Lancashire.[13]

BES Utilities was shortlisted for the Treating Customers Fairly Award in The Utilities & Telecoms Awards 2014, which champion the outstanding achievements of organisations, teams and individuals working for energy, water or telecoms providers. Recognition of the company’s commitment to its customers continued in 2015 when BES Utilities was shortlisted again for the Treating Customers Fairly award, and in the Telecom Team of the Year category for the first time.

In 2018, as part of its expansion plans, BES created a new team based in Cape Town, South Africa.  The team in Cape Town now handles all first line customer contact relating to general service issues, change of tenancies and debt collection.[14]

BES Utilities won a major contract with ESPO, one of the UK’s largest public sector buying organisations, which is worth an estimated £600m over two years and will help local authorities, the NHS, schools and emergency services drive down their energy costs.[15][16]

In January 2018, BES Utilities settled a High Court case against two men, in which the company had alleged that they had made false claims about the company for three years.[17][18]

Following the hearing, in the High Court at Manchester, the defendants were issued with court orders containing penal notices. They gave undertakings to the court to cease their behaviour and remove any published reference to BES, its directors, employees, agents and representatives. If the men fail to comply with the order they may be held in contempt of court and could be fined or imprisoned. The court also ordered that if the defendants breach the undertakings, they will be required to pay £250,000 towards BES’s substantial legal costs.

Both defendants signed the following statement: "We withdraw any allegation of fraud or dishonesty against Business Energy Solutions Limited and BES Commercial Electricity Limited, their directors, officers, agents, legal advisers and other professional representatives".

In 2012, Pilley and fellow trustees founded the Fleetwood Town Community Trust, an independent, registered charity working in partnership with Fleetwood Town Football Club.[29] The Trust is an active community project that aims to provide socially inclusive community, health and education engagement programmes within its local community.

Andy is a supporter of Trinity Hospice. In Summer 2013, BES Utilities supported the Trinity Hospice Corporate Challenge,[30] and more recently, Card Saver has donated merchant service terminals to Trinity Hospice and Brian House Children’s Hospice enabling members of the public to donate by card rather than having to look for loose change.[31]

In February 2019 it was announced[32] that Andy and FTFC would pledge £10,000 to help tackle bullying in schools by supporting a ground-breaking training programme headed up by local Human Behaviour Trainer and Success Coach, Norry Ascroft. Following on from the success earlier in the year Andy, along with BES Utilities[33] and Card Saver,[34] pledged a further £20,000 to the MADD About Bullying programme, supporting over 300 schools in the North West directly.

BES Utilities sponsored Blackpool illuminations, providing free electricity in 2014 and half price electricity in 2015. Their sponsorship was worth in excess of £100,000 over two years – the biggest donation to the Lights in more than a decade.[35]

Fleetwood Town FC, BES Utilities and Card Saver all sponsor local professional boxer Brian 'The Lion' Rose.[36] As well as providing sponsorship, Andy has given Brian full use of the state-of-the-art facilities at Poolfoot Farm, along with access to coaches and physios.

In 2018, Andy and Fleetwood Town FC partnered with East Pines Park, and offered to maintain their football pitches. The pitches were often completely out of use due to poor drainage, and after playing football at East Pines Park as youngster, Andy decided to step in and help. Following extensive improvement work and maintenance by the grounds team from Fleetwood Town, the pitch now plays host to a variety of community football sessions for youngsters as well as weekly walking football sessions for older players.[37]

The story of local young footballer, Jamie Oakey, who was born with one foot inspired Andy to support England’s next generation of amputee players. Jamie, who was named in the England Amputee FA’s under-23 squad, is also part of a group of junior players hoping to take part in an international training camp in Hoffenheim, Germany, in July. To get there the young amputees and their families needed to raise £5,000, so Andy decided to provide financial support for the Germany training camp as well as giving the England squad free use of the Cod Army’s Poolfoot Farm training base whenever they needed it.[38]

• Sponsor of Thornton Christmas Lights[39]
• Creation of the BES Fund to support businesses struggling with energy or other debts[40]
• Funder of national charity, Business Debtline[41]