Broadband ISP Fibrus Boosts Senior Team as Staff Count Hits 300

Full fibre operator and UK ISP Fibrus, which is currently rolling out a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network across parts of Northern England and Northern Ireland, has today strengthened its leadership team with three senior appointments and reported that they now directly employ almost 300 people.

At present, their FTTP infrastructure has so far managed to cover 120,000 premises (up from 104k in Feb 2022 and 58,000 premises in August 2021), which includes builds under both their state aid supported contract via Project Stratum (85,000 premises) and their separate commercial builds across both N.Ireland and England.

Fibrus is investing around £0.5bn to reach a total of 330,000 poorly served homes in N.Ireland, while their separate deployment in England is currently focused upon reaching 300,000 premises in “118 regional towns” across parts of Cumbria, Northumberland and North Yorkshire by the end of 2024 (here)

As part of that, the operator has today appointed a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Colin Hutchinson, as well as new Directors in both its Sales and Marketing Departments, Mark Woolner and Amie McNiece.

Dominic Kearns, Fibrus CEO, said:

“We now employ almost 300 people directly, contributing almost £15m salaries to the local economy, while our roll out of full fibre broadband across the North is a major investment which benefits the wider economy through our supplier network. By the end of 2022 we will have connected 250,000 premises to full fibre broadband, changing lives and transforming communities.

An infrastructure project of that scale requires a professional and dedicated leadership team and that’s what we are building at Fibrus. Investing in our people and the workplace culture we have at Fibrus has been central to our growth and our success. I am delighted to welcome Amie, Colin and Mark, and look forward to their contributions in continuing the Fibrus success story.”

Customers of Fibrus typically pay from £39.99 per month (currently discounted to £19.99 – but only in their commercial areas) for an unlimited 150Mbps package with a router and free installation, which rises to £59.99 per month for their top 1000Mbps tier on a 12-month contract term.

Joining the Fibrus team are:

Colin Hutchinson, Chief Financial Officer – Returning to work in Northern Ireland having spent 20 years with a range of telecoms firms around the world. A Chartered Accountant, Colin trained with Deloitte in Belfast and has since worked across Europe and the Americas.

Amie McNeice, Marketing Director – Joins Fibrus from the Almac Group where she led on the global marketing strategy. Amie also previously worked with the Kingspan Group and a Global agency network. She has experience in both domestic and global markets including NA, Europe and Asia, with a background in B2B and B2C, across a variety of sectors including Life Science, Energy, Retail and FMCG. At Fibrus, Amie will focus on brand development and the expansion of the marketing function.

Mark Woolner, Sales Director – Has been in the telecommunications industry for over 18 years and previously worked with Virgin Media and Liberty Global in the UK, and across Chile, Switzerland and Germany supporting sales growth. At Fibrus, Mark will develop the company Sales function and work with sales agents to understand and respond to customer needs.