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Dealers
July 15, 2013
B2B dealer OneCom expects to add around 50,000 new Vodafone connections to its base in the next 12 months – taking its total number of connections past the 200,000 mark.
OneCom was formed late last month following the decision to merge Vodafone platinum partner Premier Telecom and business telecoms provider Business Phones Direct (BPD).
The companies, which have a combined annual turnover of more than £40 million, are both owned by Darren Ridge (pictured, right), who was MD of Premier Telecom and is now the CEO.
BPD MD Aaron Brown (pictured, left) has been made OneCom COO.
Ridge told Mobile News the firm has set itself the target of boosting its base by around 25 per cent by June 2014, through a mixture of acquisition and organic growth.
Jobs boost
Ridge also confirmed the merger has resulted in the creation of 70 new jobs which, when filled, will take staff numbers to 300. The new employees will be focused on customer services and telesales, he said.
Jobs will be available at OneCom’s eight offices across the UK. These are its head office, which remains in Fareham in Hampshire, as well as its offices in Leeds, Hereford, London, Southampton, Plymouth, Bridgnorth in Shropshire and Chandlers Ford in Hampshire. The company is also looking at opening a ninth office in Manchester.
Ridge said: “Premier Telecom and Business Phones Direct offer so much more than just telecoms services. There’s a lot of synergies between the two businesses so to consolidate the resource makes a lot of sense. It gives us a tremendous platform for future growth.”
Acquisitions
He added: “The next milestone is to achieve 200,000 connections within the next 12 months. There is certainly an appetite
for acquisition from the network, which is good. We have a proven track record in acquisitions ourselves, and we also we have good ARP and low, single-digit churn.”
Premier Telecom was Vodafone’s largest platinum partner with a base of more than 150,000 mobile connections and is billing more than £15 million a year.
High-profile customers include Transport for London, the NHS and B&Q, and it has won the operator’s ‘Platinum Partner of the Year’ award for the past two years.
It has also featured twice in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 in that time, which ranks Britain’s technology companies with the fastest growing sales.