Welcomm Communications founder Chris Stanton retires
Stanton had founded the O2 dealer in 1989 after spending 10 years in the Royal Navy
Dealers
January 17, 2017
Increased partnership with EE and call centre growth will pave the way for achieving milestone
A1 Comms expects to see turnover surge by a quarter to £100 million before the end of March 2018 as it continues the significant growth it achieved last year.
That is according to the Derbyshire-based dealer’s founder and CEO Paul Sisson, who claimed this figure will grow by around 20 per cent in its current financial year to around £80 million from £65 million in 2015/16.
A1 Comms connects EE, O2 and Vodafone, offering fixed line, broadband, M2M, VoIP, SIM-only, tracking, recycling and repairs. It houses the brands buymobiles.net, Affordable Mobiles, phones.co.uk and Insure My Pocket, as well as Go Mobile, of which there are 63 stores. Customers include Derby County Football Club and Derbyshire County Cricket Club.
Plans in pipeline
“We have grown a lot recently and with some of the things we have planned for this year, we also expect to see significant growth in 2017/18,” said Sisson.
“We have a number of plans in the pipeline, so I am confident we can reach turnover of close to £100 million in our next financial year.”
The aspirations to reach the turnover milestone come after A1 Comms was named ‘Best Dealer’ by EE at its Indirect Retail Partner Awards and ‘Best Business Partner’ by BT at its Business Partner Channel Awards, which took place
last month.
Both accolades recognised the company through excellence across a number of metrics, including customer satisfaction and sales performance.
A1 Comms also signed a two-year deal to become a ‘tactical partner’ with EE last summer, which Sisson believes made it the first partner in the independent channel to achieve this status.
It is contracted to supply a certain amount of business to the mobile operator that it wasn’t previously and in return is provided with specific commercial terms to help it achieve those targets.
“Signing the contract with EE was a fantastic achievement for us as it provided us with a longer commitment to them,” said Sisson.
“We also have to make commitments to EE in return, but it has provided us with a good platform to do some good business. As a result, our business has grown significantly with them since.”
Call centre impact
Sisson also expects the opening of its new customer call centre in Pride Park, Derby last August, which will eventually lead to the creation of up to 100 jobs, to have a significant and positive impact on turnover during its next financial year.
It occupies the first floor of a two storey building, and was opened following what A1 Comms claimed was an “incredible growth period”, with demand for its products at an “all-time high”.
An initial 20 jobs were created, but this will increase to 30 before the end of this month and continue to rise in line with business growth.
Sisson said the company would also look to open a new office within Pride Park later this year, potentially doubling staff numbers located there. That would be in addition to the 100 employees currently based at its head office in Alfreton.
“The growth and development of our new call centre will be a big contributing factor in achieving our long-term targets,” he added.
“I would expect the 30 staff we employ there to achieve turnover of £15 million on their own, and we didn’t have that a year ago.”