Telecoms firm keeps ringing up the right numbers

Leeds-based Diva Telecom helps teachers to tell parents about school closures, and makes it easier to catch truants.

The firm is forecasting further growth and job creation in 2012.

Established five years ago, Diva has tripled in size in the last two years and has ended the financial year with a turnover of £2.4m, which is 40 per cent higher than the previous year and £200,000 ahead of target.

The company’s eight-strong team operates from a base in north Leeds. It provides services for a global customer base.

Managing director Erica Lewis, who has more than 30 years’ experience in the telecoms industry, said the firm had seen strong growth in demand for international freephone numbers and in its “traditional” business, which involves providing telephone lines, calls, phone systems and mobile phones to SMEs (small and medium-sized businesses) across Yorkshire.

Ms Lewis said the business had a healthy sales pipeline in place, which means she’s confident Diva will hit its £3m turnover target in the next year.

She said: “As well as securing some significant international freephone deals in July and August, we’re starting to see growth in our text messaging and teleconferencing business.

“More and more people are seeing the benefits of using text messaging to reach a large number of people, quickly.

“We’re seeing growth in the education sector, as schools increasingly use text messaging to communicate school closures and truancy to parents, for example, but also across a range of other sectors, including financial services, healthcare, retail and travel, as both an internal and an external communications tool.

“And as rising fuel and travel costs bite, more and more businesses are making the decision to save time and money by running teleconference meetings, rather than incurring the cost of bringing together people from all corners of the country.”

Ms Lewis revealed that she plans to recruit another sales account manager within the next few months to service the demand for new business.

She also aims to create a sales support role in early 2012, as well as recruiting a programmer to develop the company’s Divatxt SMS platform.