Another record year for Sheffield telecoms star Plusnet

Sheffield ISP Plusnet has served up record financial results again after a 22 per cent surge in customers.
Andy Baker Plusnet CEO.Andy Baker Plusnet CEO.
Andy Baker Plusnet CEO.

The firm said turnover leapt 18 per cent to £370m due to price changes and the customer increase.

The number of employees rose 17 per cent from 1,351 to a new record of 1,585. Staff are based in Sheffield and Leeds.

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But profit fell from £47.9m to £40.2m due to investment in customer growth, the firm said, which would '˜provide profitable growth in future years'.

It paid £9.9m tax on profit, down from £12.7m the year previous. The figures were in accounts for the year to March 31 2018 filed at Companies House.

Plusnet is led by chief executive Andy Baker and based in The Balance on Pinfold Street in Sheffield city centre, where it has just opened a 200-seat call centre for its mobile division.

A spokeswoman said: 'We've had a great year that has seen unprecedented customer growth and we have cemented our role in the market as the consumer champion demonstrated by our award winning customer service. We're investing more into our business to support the rapid growth and we're looking forward to seeing this continue.'

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Announcing the new call centre in February, Andy Baker said it heralded their biggest ever recruitment drive due to '˜exponential growth' of Mobile.

As well as '˜in-depth training' staff receive perks including free broadband, free lunch, a mobile phone deal, '˜competitive' wages and bonuses.

The firm had struggled to recruit due to stiff competition from other tech firms in Sheffield including Sky Bet.

It responded by bringing recruitment in-house and offering an extensive perks package.

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In a report filed with the accounts, finance director Paula Smith said automation was also important.

She states: '˜The company continues to use its self-developed '˜Workplace' trading platform to provide business automation, enabling products to be provide quickly at competitive prices whilst ensuring a high quality of service and low cost operating model.'

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