Fishwick commented, “In line with industry trends, total sales revenue is down nearly 8% compared to the previous year, although our profit (underlying EBITDA) is up slightly for the 8th successive year. The number of phone calls has reduced since the recession started and the cost of landline calls to mobiles is falling rapidly because of the new regulated price cuts on calls to mobiles.
It is therefore extremely important that we sell a wider range of products. Mobile sales are up 52% in the year and data products and networks are up 28%. The growth in mobile and data isn’t quite enough to offset the decline in landline call revenue yet but we are getting close. Last year we achieved £2.8m sales revenue in mobile and data.
We started as a supplier to small businesses but have moved up in customer size: we now have 17 customers who spend over £100,000 per annum with us and our top 200 customers now represent over 1/3 of our revenue. We have had huge success in cross-selling more products and 64% of the revenue from larger customers is from customers who buy 3 or 4 products from us.
Our sales of Ethernet data connectivity, fibre broadband and VoIP mean that we are now at the very forefront of technology in the UK. The recent retender of our wholesale call contract was won again by Cable and Wireless. We can now compete on cost with any reseller in the UK. It is not just about having the right products; you also need to be able to buy them at the best prices.
We paid off nearly £2m of our debt to Barclays in the year and our bank debt is now at a very normal, manageable level.
We are well placed to address the future and our prospects looks really exciting, but as our Chairman often says; “If it was easy: everybody would be doing it.”
Thanks to everyone who has helped us to achieve 8 consecutive years of rising underlying EBITDA: this is a record to be truly proud of.”