Plusnet’s growth is picking up speed

Sheffield-headquartered Plusnet, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary, has just launched a new-look version of its product, Plusnet Extra Fibre, a superfast broadband offering customers speeds of up to 76 Mb/s, with a 250GB usage allowance.

This is more than two thousand times faster than the dial-up internet Plusnet offered when it launched in 1997 – it had typical speeds of 28.8 Kbps. The product more than doubles the usage allowance of Plusnet Extra Fibre from 120GB, increases speeds, which were previously up to 40 Mb/s, but reduces the cost, says Plusnet.

Jamie Ford, chief executive, told the Yorkshire Post: “It is eight times faster than the average copper broadband product so it is exciting for us at Plusnet to be offering not just really good value products, but also really the very fastest and high tech products in the marketplace.”

Meanwhile, he said that if the firm’s growth trajectory continues in around 12 months he is likely to be looking at a second site. Mr Ford said this is likely to be outside of Sheffield, where its headquarters are based, “for resilience”, but hopefully in the Yorkshire region.

The business, which employs just over 720 people, which is more than double its headcount of two years ago, recently moved to a new site in Sheffield.

“It’s a reflection of our growth that we have had to do that. So we are creating lots of jobs in the area. And to make sure we could get everyone in we had to move to a new space,” said Mr Ford.

Plusnet is now based at office space The Balance in the centre of the city.

“If the business continues to grow, then hopefully we’ll outgrow our current space pretty quickly in which case we’ll have to put in place a second site and grow that one up too,” added Mr Ford.

In the last year, Plusnet has taken on around 100 people and it now has more than half a million customers across the UK.

Mr Ford said: “With the combination of new products, the building move, our continued efforts to grow our brand awareness through advertising... we are very hopeful we can continue to grow and with that grow our employee base.”

He added: “It’s been a good period of growth for us in the last couple of years, a combination of bringing some of the call centre operations back from South Africa – we do all our call centre work in the UK in Sheffield – plus growth in customers coming to us.”

Plusnet is a subsidiary of BT having been acquired by the company in 2007. In BT’s first quarter to June 30 2012, it posted a six per cent fall in revenues to £4.5bn in the three months to June 30, reflecting “tough conditions in Europe”. But the group said pre-tax profits were up eight per cent at £578m and it left its full year guidance unchanged.

One of Plusnet’s key focuses is to grow its brand awareness and it has recently finished shooting a new television advert for its new look Plusnet Extra Fibre product.

Mr Ford said: “For us to continue to be relevant we need to grow our awareness.

“Plusnet is a smaller brand than some of those that we are competing against and our biggest challenge remains – people understanding who we are.

“Getting that message across through advertising is a key focus for us and a key investment for us.”

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