Orders from new customers have doubled over the last nine months. This has primarily been driven by an increase in the number of Business Partners bringing us new customers. We are signing on average four new Business Partners every month. Most of our new Business Partners can see very quickly the advantages of scale as we can afford to compete on price if necessary, but more importantly we have had the financial strength to invest heavily in back-office systems so that we can offer a better service than our competitors. Combined with easy to understand commission schemes, connection bonuses and rapid payment this is a winning formula.
In our last half year results we showed margins 0.5% higher than the previous year, so the idea of falling margins in the ‘minutes and lines’ business is a fallacy (if you have sufficient scale).
Our recent agreement with The Carphone Warehouse group to transfer customers to their 21st Century Network based on Local Loop Unbundling gives us access to lower cost broadband for the first time, and a whole stream of converged voice and data products over the next 2 years. Our addressable market is growing rather than shrinking.
So, we enter 2008 stronger than ever, and more and more convinced that scale is the key.”