| Northumberland based BNS Telecom gets back in the game |
| Friday, 13 November 2009 10:30 |
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A FIRM which struggled to turn a profit in its four-year foray as a plc has surged into the black with record results - just months after it delisted. Northumberland’s BNS Telecom Group has posted a 13.3% rise in revenue to £37m in the year to July 2009 and has high ambitions for exponential growth going forward. The company has made its first profit for three years by turning a £2.3m annual losses into a profit of £1.2m this year.Over the next five years it is aiming to become a £100m-a-year enterprise, as it draws a line under its time as a public firm during which it believes it was “massively” under-valued and misunderstood by the market. Last May BNS shareholders voted unanimously to delist from the AIM market as the company vowed to make a return to the black in the back end of this year. The 12 months to July have seen the company reduce its net debt by 42% to £2.5m, while its cash flow has surged 39% to £3.4m. Chief executive Garry Moat said the company would continue to grow on the back of its success in internet-based phone call technology known as IP telephony. He also said the current financial year was shaping up to bring further growth for the firm as it continues its resurgence as a private company. He said: “We have just finished our first quarter and it’s a really robust set of figures - we have started the year as well as we finished the last year. “The demand for telecommunications products and services continues to be strong despite the current trading environment. “Businesses are looking to reduce and more tightly manage their operational costs whilst also exploiting new digital technologies to improve efficiencies. “BNS is at the forefront of the internet-based IP calls revolution, having moved from a traditional reseller of telecommunications to become an IP telephony carrier.” Prudhoe-based BNS recently extended its product range to give customers access to Microsoft’s software to combine telephony with an office desktop. Earlier this year the firm signed a three-year sponsorship deal with Tynedale Rugby Club as part of what the company described as a strategy to build the firm into a national brand. |