Telecoms provider promotes former Vodafone finance chief Richard Schafer to managing director as it looks to drive growth by almost a third
Onecom is aiming to increase its turnover by a third to £100 million in 2016 following an internal restructure of its directorial team and an expansion of its market reach.
The Hampshire-based Vodafone platinum partner manages nearly a quarter-of-a-million mobile connections, as well as fixed line, cloud and IT products and services.
Turnover at the firm has increased significantly since 2013, up from £32 million to a projected £70 million this year, thanks to a series of acquisitions and bumper contract wins, including a three-year deal worth £2.8 million with the Co-op.
Onecom CEO Darren Ridge (pictured) said: “After another fantastic year of solid growth, we must now prepare for the next phase of our development.”
Restructure
The next phase has also resulted in the firm undergoing a number of internal changes, which Ridge says will help to accelerate its growth further.
These include the promotion of chief financial officer Richard Schafer, who spent six years at Vodafone in a similar role before joining Onecom in March, as its new managing director.
Schafer takes over the daily running of the Fareham-based B2B telecoms provider from Ridge. Both have retained their positions on the senior management board, alongside group chief operating officer Aaron Brown, group chairman Stephen Hunter and group non-executive Steve Johnston.
Helen Myers, who has been head of operations since April 2014, has become operations director. Prior to joining Onecom, she spent eight years at Ingram Micro as the distributor’s service delivery manager.
Both Jason Waterworth and James Bannister remain as sales directors of the mobile and solutions arms of the business respectively.
Three new senior management positions have also been created – finance director, customer experience director and technical director, but are yet to be filled.
“In order to fully facilitate this continued growth, we are augmenting the existing management team and appointed selected senior staff into new roles,” said Ridge.
“I strongly believe this robust structure will provide the perfect platform to continue our expansion and reach our intended turnover target of £100 million in 2016.”
