Job Losses Strike UK ISP Origin Broadband After Growth Spurt

Doncaster-based ISP Origin Broadband have confirmed that their employee base has recently decreased from 165 to 149 (-16 people) after a number of staff lost their jobs, which the provider said was necessary in order to help “create a more agile and sustainable business for future growth.”

The provider has recently gone through somewhat of a growth spurt after attracting an additional investment of £2 million from Calculus Capital last August 2017 (here). At the time they suggested that the new funding could be used to attract additional customers and more UK staff (this time last year their total employee base is said to have been around 54).

Unfortunately the growth spurt took somewhat of a hit this week after a number of workers notified ISPreview.co.uk that they had suddenly found themselves out of a job, which appears to reflect a mix of customer support, warehouse and management roles.

A Spokesperson for Origin Broadband told ISPreview.co.uk:

“We appreciate this is a difficult time for those who have been affected, however, these changes have been made to create a more agile and sustainable business for future growth.

Our customer base has increased by 19% since August 2017. We have an ongoing drive to deliver great customer service and therefore, we have been working closely with our new Chief Operations Officer to ensure maximum productivity across the business. This includes investment in technologies, automation and other process improvements.”

The company’s most recent accounts, which were published in September 2017 and cover the year to the end of March 2017 (here), reveal that Origin generated a loss for the period of -£2.15m (compared with -£1.23m in 2015). This was attributed to “the company’s ongoing investment in headcount, premises and infrastructure needed to support a growing level of sales,” which they hope will eventually move them into more positive territory.

In the meantime Origin has continued to see a fair amount of unhappy feedback from existing subscribers, with gripes about poor customer support and service performance (speed / reliability) being among the most common. We’ve seen similar issues in the past with other low cost focused providers that have gone through a growth spurt (e.g. TalkTalk); getting the balance right isn’t easy.

A number of subscribers have also complained after their cancelled Direct Debits were later reinstated by Origin, allegedly without their permission. Origin’s spokesperson said, “We cannot comment on individual customer queries, but we can assure you that we operate fully within the correct guidelines of the Direct Debit guarantee scheme.”

Whatever the issues, Origin appears keen to move forward and they have a number of developments planned for 2018.