KCom reveals “further progress”

Hull-based group said pre-tax profit rose 3.1 per cent to £52.7m in the year ending March 31. Revenue was 3.7 per cent lower at £372.9m.

Executive chairman, Bill Halbert, said: “The group has made further progress in improving the quality and long-term sustainability of the business. This is evidenced by the continued strong performance in KC and some of the key customer wins during the year, as a result of the strengthening of our competitive position in target markets.

“Our disciplined financial management gives the group a positive outlook. As a result, we are pleased to be able to commit to a 10 per cent per annum dividend increase through to 2016, while at the same time, investing in support of our longer term goals.

He added: “We remain focused on executing our strategy for profitable growth across each of our brands, targeting opportunities to provide more value added services to existing customers, alongside winning new contracts across all our target markets. This will be underpinned by continued investment in those areas that support scalable and efficient delivery of services to our customers.”

The group said the KC division has continued its deployment of fibre and has achieved take up rates “well in excess of initial expectations”.

It added: “The uptake of our fibre-based services, Lightstream, remains above the levels of our initial expectations, with over 20 per cent of premises passed taking our high-speed services. There are currently 3,600 customers using our Lightstream services.

“Our next financial year’s fibre deployment is expected to reach a further 15,000 homes and premises. We remain on target to make the service available to a total of 45,000 homes in the region, by March 2015.”