CEO of UK Broadband ISP Plusnet Exits as BT Takes Control

The long standing CEO of low cost broadband ISP Plusnet, Andy Baker, has announced that he will step down as the provider completes its integration into BT’s Consumer division. Despite this the business will retain some independence (i.e. helping to differentiate their packages) and will continue to be based out of Sheffield and Leeds.

BT has been conducting somewhat of a reorganisation of their business (including EE) over the past two years, which is partly about helping the group to operate more efficiently and to cut costs. As part of that the operator has been working toward deeper integration of their sub-brands, including Plusnet, which will also see other senior and non-call centre staff within the ISP being transferred (TUPE) to BT from February 2020.

Under the plan a small number of duplicate posts will also be removed (redundancies are said to be “unlikely“) and Plusnet will now effectively be led by the CEO of BT’s Consumer division, Marc Allera. Plusnet is currently known to host 1,678 staff at its sites in Sheffield and Leeds (mostly support and sales), while the business recently delivered a turnover of £410m and a gross annual profit of £186m.

Andy Baker, Outgoing Plusnet CEO, said:

“After six years in this role representing the great team at Plusnet and doing our customers proud, I believe now is the right time to leave. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all the staff here in Yorkshire, working towards and delivering improved customer experience and growth across the Plusnet business.”

Since last year the provider has been suffering a bit due to a problematic upgrade of their billing platform, which resulted in numerous problems (e.g. billing mistakes). The impact of this became clear in Q1 2019 after Ofcom reported that Plusnet had attracted the most consumer complaints (proportionally) of all the largest fixed home broadband and phone providers in the UK market (here).

The regulator will shortly be publishing their Q2 2019 update (a little later than planned due to problems with their data) and we’ll be interested to see how much of an improvement has occurred. Despite all of this the ISP is understood to still be growing their customer base, although sadly the BT Group no longer releases any subscriber figures and so there’s no solid information to help confirm such statements.