400 jobs hope as Origin gets £3m

Origin Broadband is aiming to create 400 jobs after a £3million investment by a private equity company.
Oliver Bryssau, chief executive of Origin Broadband, Yorkshire Way, Armthorpe. Picture: Andrew RoeOliver Bryssau, chief executive of Origin Broadband, Yorkshire Way, Armthorpe. Picture: Andrew Roe
Oliver Bryssau, chief executive of Origin Broadband, Yorkshire Way, Armthorpe. Picture: Andrew Roe

The Doncaster company hopes to grow from 100 to 500 people in the next 18 months after Calculus Capital bought an undisclosed percentage of the firm.

Origin is currently advertising up to 40 vacancies, according to boss Oliver Bryssau.

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The firm signed 4,500 residential customers in December alone - it’s best ever month. It also has thousands of business customers and a national presence, he added.

Turnover is set to hit £18m in May, up from £3.5m at the same time last year.

Mr Bryssau said: “We look forward to benefiting from the scale-up expertise and experience of the Calculus team as we move into an exciting new phase in our continuing growth.”

Origin, which has its own infrastructure inside Openreach telephone exchanges, has the sixth largest broadband network in the UK, by one measure.

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The investment comes after three funding rounds worth more than £1m by Finance Yorkshire.

Richard Moore, investment director, Calculus Capital, said: “Origin places a very high value on customer service, has its own network and is an agile alternative to the unwieldy corporate giants.”

John Glencross, chief executive of Calculus, said: “The continuing migration of UK households to superfast broadband is driving revenue growth, with Ofcom figures showing revenues from domestic customers up 18.5 per cent year-on-year to £4.9 billion in 2014. More and more businesses are moving to the cloud.”