The profit figure is for residential accounts, which rose from 15.7 million at the beginning of the year to 15.9 million at the end of June.
The company attributed the rise in residential customers to the reduction of gas prices, announced in February. British Gas advertised the price cut in a substantial campaign created by CHI & Partners.
However, only 7,000 of the new accounts were for gas while 216,000 were for electricity.
The reduction in gas prices led to a fall in revenue from £6.9bn in the first half of 2009, to £6.7bn this year.
At the same time, British Gas said it had installed 17% more central heating systems than last year, boosted by the government’s boiler-scrappage scheme.
Parent company Centrica reported no growth in revenue for the period, but profit rose 65% to £1.6bn. It is paying shareholders a dividend of 3.84p per share, up from 3.66p last year.
Centrica said it was on track to exceed its ambition of cutting costs by £100m, and that it would be reinvesting money from these savings in areas such as online and marketing, as well as improving customer services.
Last month, British Gas reappointed Carat to its £50m media planning and buying account. It has recently appointed Will Orr, former chief executive of ad agency WCRS, in the new role of communications director.
Telecoms / Utilities
British Gas grows customer base after ad drive
British Gas has added 223,000 new customers in the first half of 2010, with the exceptionally cold weather helping to almost double its profits to £585m for the period, compared with £295m last year.
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