Citycom looking for sales boost with portal
The Vodafone dealer’s new portal is due to launch at the start of next year
Dealers - Alex Yau
December 16, 2016
Purchase of Evolve Telecom and rapid development of its solutions division driving it to target
Onecom will grow annual turnover by a third next year to reach the milestone of £100 million – 12 months ahead of originally planned.
This is according to CEO Darren Ridge, who said this will be driven through a mixture organic growth, its acquisition of Evolve Telecom in September and further potential purchases next year within the mobile, fixed line and cloud- based services.
The acquisition of fellow Vodafone Platinum Partner Evolve, which is headquartered in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, added £20 million to Onecom’s annual turnover.
It also provided the Hampshire-based B2B dealer with 65,000 mobile connections, taking it past the 300,000 mark, and its first office in Wales, located in Cardiff.
‘Fantastic milestone’
“The business is in really good shape and we are rapidly expanding,” said Ridge.
“After the acquisition of Evolve Telecom and the combination of the businesses, we’re on target to achieve £100 million turnover by the end of 2017.
“When we started Onecom in 2013, we had a five-year plan to reach that milestone. That is now a reality for next year.
“We continue to be on the acquisition trail and are currently on the lookout for the right businesses that specialise in mobile, fixed-line and cloud- based services.
Ridge also attributes growth this year and into next to its solutions business, which is achieving turnover in excess of £10 million over the past 18 months.
The division, which offers fixed-line, broadband, cloud and unified communications services, had a record month in November, with £2.2 million worth of contract order value.
Recent wins include a £3.2 million agreement over five-years in October to connect a minimum of 300 businesses across Coventry, Leicester and Nottingham to CityFibre’s fibre- optic broadband network.
This was in addition to an existing £1.7 million deal between the pair a month earlier that will see it connect 150 business customers throughout Southend-on-Sea.
He also pinpointed the opportunity presented in Wales following its acquisition of Evolve, which acquired Cardiff-based Vodafone Platinum Partner The Word in July 2012.
It means Onecom now has a physical presence in Wales for the first time, with headcount doubling to around 20 over the past few months.
Exciting opportunity
“The acquisition of Evolve has helped and we will continue to see more benefits of that into next year. We have also seen massive growth in our solutions division, which has gone from nothing to a £10 million business in just 18 months and is growing rapidly every day.
“We’re also very excited about the opportunity in Wales, with staff numbers in the Cardiff office rising all the time. That has helped regenerate the business.”
‘Outstanding expertise’
Onecom has also revealed that its 450 employees across the UK have completed 1,882 hours of training for the revamped Vodafone Partner Programme.
The training was required for submission to the operator’s new scheme, with applications for its entry closing for partners at the end of last month.
Companies were expected to demonstrate outstanding levels of capability and customer experience, with staff subject to regular checks and audits, training and certification.
Ridge said: “Hundreds of Onecom’s staff have shown outstanding levels of expertise and dedication to the customer experience in completing the training required for us to make our application.”
