Broadband ISP Zen Internet Aim to Double UK Revenue in 5 Yrs

Rochdale-based UK ISP Zen Internet, which over the years has built itself a strong reputation in the telecoms industry and is also B Corp certified, has today boosted their executive team as part of a new effort to more than double their revenue to £200 million over the next 5-years.

According to Zen’s latest accounts, the ISP saw revenue grow by 8% during 2020 (7% in 2019). At the same time they’re currently busy upgrading their estate of 451 unbundled exchanges to extend support for ultrafast broadband (FTTP) services and, in order to deliver 80% coverage of FTTP in the future, they’ve also decided to unbundle a further 250 exchanges (total of 701).

All of this is being funded by an existing 5-year £20m revolving credit facility (£12.5m of that has already been drawn down). The provider also saw turnover of £82.1m in 2020 (up from £76m in 2019), although they made a loss of £2m in the year (vs a profit of £0.7m in 2019), which partly reflects their move to adopt more aggressive industry pricing (i.e. cheaper broadband due to a competitive market).

As above, Zen now aim to more than double their revenue to £200m over the next five years and as part of that they’ve moved to expand their executive team. As a result, existing employees Dave Barber and Paul Sinclair have been promoted to the newly created roles of Portfolio Management Director and Marketing Director respectively. Dave and Paul will sit on Zen’s Executive Committee with immediate effect.

In addition to the above roles, Zen has also created the new position of Customer Experience Director to oversee all of Zen’s operational activity across provisioning, onboarding, technical support, customer service and customer engineering. Dean Burdon will take this role, and also joins the Executive Committee with immediate effect. Dean has two decades of experience in customer service including six years at TalkTalk.

Finally, Steve Warburton, currently Executive Committee member and MD of Zen’s Partner Division, will take on additional responsibility as MD for Zen Retail.

Paul Stobart, CEO of Zen Internet, said:

“I am delighted with these appointments. Promoting two senior managers to the Executive Committee demonstrates the emphasis we place on developing internal talent within the business. The expansion of Steve’s existing responsibilities is a testament to the success he has already enjoyed, with his colleagues in the Partner Division, in building a fast-growing business serving our channel partners.

Where appropriate, though, we will continue to bring in fresh talent to give the team additional bench-strength, and Dean is a great example of someone who brings us invaluable experience as well as a passion for the customer that is a match for our own. Dave, Paul, Steve and Dean are already making a significant impact in their new roles and will undoubtedly help us achieve our strategic goals and ambitions.

We have an ambitious plan to drive growth across ultrafast, cloud and communications, with the aim of more than doubling our revenue to £200m over the next five years. Our people-first ethos, our passion for the customer, and our determination to do the right thing by all our stakeholders, including our people, customers, suppliers, our local communities and the environment, sets us apart, we believe, from others in the market.”

At this point it’s worth remembering that, back in January 2018, Zen set itself the target of becoming a £100 million business within just 3 years and a £250 million business within 10 years (here). Annual turnover hasn’t quite reached the £100m mark yet, but £82.1m still compares favourably with the £57.2m recorded in their September 2016 accounts.