Turnover at Nine has grown at a massive rate over the past year, despite the recession. James Palmer, group managing director at Nine Telecom, commented that prior to the company’s acquisition of Club Communications in February 2009, its turnover was £10 million per annum, which rose to £22 million after the purchase of Club. At the end of its financial year this March, the company turnover should hit a fat £35 million, while it predicts it will get to £50 million by the end of December 2010.
To tell its positive story, Convergence Summit North is the only place to be, claims Palmer. “As far as the channel is concerned, there are only two shows per year, this show and its Southern sister. We don’t have much presence in the North, although we did get more from our acquisition of Club, so we would like to do more business up here. To that end, our aim at the show is to meet and greet. Our intention is not to flog any particular product, but to raise our profile.
“Our aim is to make sure people know who we are; we work hard and we play hard. We want to keep our reputation as the nice guy in the industry to do business with,” continued Palmer. “We are also ramping up our commissions and increasing our incentives for the channel, at a time when others in this space are reducing theirs. If you want to be in the dealer or reseller space, you should definitely consider talking to us before anyone else.”
Palmer continued that Nine frequently gets business from channel members that have had enough of their existing suppliers, and receives approximately six calls per week from interested resellers and a further six from dealers, enquiring after the Nine proposition. “A lot of our competitors are reducing their investment in the channel , cutting commissions and looking at selling up. We are definitely not for sale. We attract dealers and resellers who are unhappy with their suppliers all the time.
“We’re seeing more people entering the network services market than ever before; it’s very buoyant,” concluded Palmer.