Wednesday, 30th July 2008
Unicom staff get inflation-beating pay rise.
Head office staff at Northenden, Manchester, based Unicom have received a pay rise that
defies the current economic downturn.
Unicom, which specialises in telecoms for small business, has been a rare growth and
success story during the economic slowdown, and now most staff will receive a 4% pay
rise from July 2008.
“We recognise the valuable contribution of our staff even in tough times – and the
massive efforts made by the team at Unicom have paid off in many ways,” said Chris
Earle, Unicom’s Operations Director.
View Press Release
Wednesday, 23rd July 2008
Unicom appoints Aurelia Bowerbank & Gareth Davison.
Manchester-based Unicom has formally appointed its July 2007 graduate trainees into permanent
roles – Aurelia Bowerbank as HR & Recruitment Assistant and Gareth Davison as Billing & Revenue
Assurance Assistant.
Aurelia, 23, originally from Grantham, Lincolnshire, came to the North West to study at Manchester
University and graduated in 2006 with a degree in History and Philosophy.
Having spent 18 months in a retail position, she was recruited onto the Unicom graduate training
scheme in 2007, and after completing the 12 month scheme which involved time in each of the
company’s departments, Aurelia’s new full time position in the HR team means that she is
responsible for the recruitment of new staff.
“My role has been specifically created to consolidate the recruitment of new staff into the business
– where previously the job was done by the head of each team,” said Aurelia.
View Press Release
Monday, 14th July 2008
Unicom appoints PricewaterhouseCoopers as auditors.
Northenden-based Universal Utilities PLC (UU), which trades as Unicom and specialises in
telecoms for small business, has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as its auditors.
The move to appoint a “big four” accountancy firm comes as Unicom continues its relentless
growth having just posted 2007/2008 financial year sales of £41.6 million.
Unicom saw a 13.5% increase in sales and a 23.6% rise in profits to the end of April 2008,
its ninth trading year.
The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £36.7 million to £41.6 million,
with pre-tax profits at £9.5 million compared to £7.7 million to the end of April 2007.
“2007/08 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2008/09 are equally
positive – we’re expecting turnover to reach £45 million and profits are projected to rise to
more than £11 million,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director of Unicom.
View Press Release
Thursday, 12th June 2008
Record monthly sales for Unicom.
Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, recorded its highest
ever monthly billing figure in May 2008 – a fraction short of £3.5million.
The sales figure resulted from a record number of customers buying Unicom’s services - more than
68,000 invoices were issued in the month, almost 10,000 up on May 2007, reflecting industry-beating
retention rates and a relentless demand for what the company provides.
Manchester-based Unicom, which has regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton
Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, specialises in
business-to-business connections.
“Consolidation in the telecoms marketplace has tempted some of our competitors to increase their
prices but this merely assists both our new sales and our retention rate, each of which is heading
in a favourable direction,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.
View Press Release
Monday, 2nd June 2008
Unicom reports another strong year of trading as profits continue to rise.
Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections, has reported a 13.5%
increase in sales and a 23.6% rise in profits to the end of April 2008, its ninth trading year.
The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £36.7 million to £41.6 million, with pre-tax
profits at £9.5 million compared to £7.7 million to the end of April 2007.
“2007/08 has been another excellent year of trading and forecasts for 2008/09 are equally positive – we’re
expecting turnover to reach £45 million and profits are projected to rise to more than £11 million,” said Tony
Eagleton, Unicom’s Finance Director.
View Press Release
Thursday, 29th May 2008
Unicom creates 80 more jobs.
Manchester-based telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-tobusiness
services, has completed the refurbishment of its headquarters enabling it to
open a new floor and create up to 80 new jobs to meet the demand for its services.
Unicom, which has been named several times in the Fast Track 100 list of the UK’s
fastest growing companies, is bucking the current economic trend; something it says
is down to its careful pricing policy which is attracting business from its competitors.
The company now provides work for almost 600 people. It pledged to create 300
new jobs when it moved into its Northenden HQ in 2006, and achieved that figure.
The new jobs will be primarily in sales but opportunities in credit control, customer
service, IT and administration teams will follow.
“We’re well tuned-in to the small business sector, and we have taken on board what
they need from their telecoms provider – a no-nonsense personal service, priced
highly competitively and operated from a local base,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.
View Press Release
Wednesday, 28th May 2008
Call volumes plunge by 40% during champions league countdown.
Call volumes from small businesses in the 0161 area fell by almost 40% during the
countdown to Manchester United’s Champion’s league showdown with Chelsea.
Unicom, which specialises in telecoms for small business, monitored call volumes
during the build-up to the match – and call levels started to tail off by as early as
10am, with a 40% reduction in the last hour of the working day compared to a
normal working day.
Overall, call volumes from small businesses in Manchester were down by 12.57% for
the day.
“It’s rare that we see anything like that level of fall-off in calls from one day to the
next, and this was one of the biggest drops offs we’ve seen in the Manchester area in
the history of our business,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.
View Press Release
Monday, 28th April 2008
Go paperless phone bill - save half the local football ground's worth of trees.
Trees covering an area half the size of the local football ground could be saved from deforestation
every year if a telecoms company succeeds in persuading its customers to switch to paperless billing.
Unicom, the small business specialist telecoms provider, which is based in Manchester and has regional
headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and
Stoke-on-Trent, is working on converting its 70,000 business customers to online billing.
“Currently Unicom provides telephone services for around 70,000 business customers, each one of which
requires a monthly invoice detailing their service charges. For each of those customers an average of four
pages will be used in a monthly invoice including the envelope,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.
View Press Release
Thursday, 24th April 2008
90% of small business says UK economic confidence has crashed in the past month.
Nine out of ten small businesses say their confidence in the state of the UK economy has crashed in the past four weeks.
Unicom, the small business specialist telecoms provider, has been asking small
company owners and managers whether they feel more or less confident in the
economy now than at the same time in March.
Of 154 companies surveyed, 140 said that they were less confident in the economy
than at the same time the previous month.
Just 14 said they were more confident in the economy than a month ago, although
Unicom itself is seeing fewer customers going out of business than at the same time
in 2007.
“The bottom line is that we had 263 customer insolvencies in the first 10 weeks of
2008 compared with 246 in the corresponding period in 2007 – a growth of 6.9%
However, this compares with growth in invoiced customers from 56,189 at the end of
March 2007 to 68,860 at the end of March 2008, i.e. 22.6%,” said Tony Eagleton,
Finance Director of Unicom.
View Press Release
Monday, 21st April 2008
Unicom loyalty levels stay high as BT hides another price increase.
Fast-growing Manchester-based telecoms independent Unicom, which specialises in services for small business,
says BT is failing its small business customers both on competitive pricing and customer service –
and continuing to hide price increases in the small print.
“Nobody likes a price increase but when the notification is hidden in the depths of BT’s website or in the small
print of their marketing literature, their customers will inevitably think they’ve been hoodwinked,”
said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.
View Press Release
Tuesday, 15th April 2008
Unicom throws redundant pipex staff a lifeline.
Fast-growing Manchester-based telecoms independent Unicom, which specialises in services for small business,
is recruiting staff made redundant by neighbour Pipex.
Unicom has provided jobs for a number of former Pipex staff, and wants to talk to as many more as
it practically can.
“We’re working hard, we’re enjoying strong growth and we are looking to recruit experienced telecoms
professionals to ensure that we maintain and further improve our service levels as that growth
continues,” said Tony Eagleton of Unicom.
View Press Release
Thursday, 20th March 2008
What recession? Small business insolvencies down.
Small business, the barometer of the UK economy, appears to be shrugging off the
doom and gloom surrounding the financial markets, according to business telephony
provider Unicom.
“As a company reliant upon the performance of thousands of UK companies, we
continuously monitor the usage levels and payment performance of our small
business customers to ensure we spot any trends upon which we need to act,” said
Tony Eagleton, Finance Director of Unicom.
“The bottom line is that we had 263 customer insolvencies in the first 10 weeks of
2008, compared with 246 in the corresponding period of 2007 – growth of 6.9%" said Tony.
View Press Release
Wednesday, 12th March 2008
95% of small businesses say government doesn't understand their challenges.
An overwhelming majority of small business owners and operators say the
government doesn’t understand the challenges facing them.
That is the key finding in a survey conducted by Unicom, which specialises in
telecoms and telephony for small businesses.
Unicom asked a cross section of its customers ringing in to its call centre: “Do you
believe that the current government understands the challenges that face small
businesses today?”
View Press Release
Tuesday, 11th March 2008
Numbers stack up as Unicom hits all the sixes.
A customer of telecoms provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business
telecom services, has logged the company’s 666,666,666th call.
Unicom, with regional headquarters in Birmingham, Ipswich, Leeds, Milton Keynes,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, Sheffield and Stoke-on-Trent, has been watching
the numbers rack up as customers move over to it.
“We seem to have a great affinity with the small business community, and I think a
great deal of the growth and success is down to nothing more complex than a nononsense
personal service, priced highly competitively and operated from a local
base." said Chris Earle, Operations Director of Unicom.
View Press Release
Monday, 3rd March 2008
118777 undercuts competition with launch of new directory service.
Unicom, the leading specialist business-to-business telecoms provider, is launching a
directory enquiries product, 118777, which will match the service level but undercut
the price of the three biggest players in the market.
118777 from Unicom is be available to both business and residential users.
Priced at 49p connection charge and 14p per minute, it will mean 118777 undercuts
the three main current directory enquiry service providers - 118118 by 28%, Yellow
Pages’ 118247 by 30% and BT’s 118500 by 31% - for an average duration call.
View Press Release
Wednesday, 2nd January 2008
Unicom creates 100 more jobs for 2008.
Manchester-based telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business
services, is planning to create 100 new jobs in 2008 to meet the demand for its
services.
Unicom, which has been named several times in the Fast Track 100 list of the UK’s
fastest growing companies, says it expects the majority of the new jobs to be in
Manchester, but some will be in its other nine UK regional offices.
The company now employs 500 people. It pledged to create 300 new jobs when it moved
into its Northenden HQ a year ago, and achieved that figure. The new jobs will be
in sales, credit control, customer service, IT and administration teams.
View Press Release
Thursday, 22nd November 2007
More than half of small businesses are a click away from disaster
The vast majority of small businesses may have binned their paper mountain by going
digital, but more than half are failing to back-up their electronic files – and
risking a complete loss of data.
Unicom asked customers ringing in to its call centre whether their business backed-up
vital computer and business data.
View Press Release
Wednesday, 17th October 2007
An all round record year for Unicom
Telecom service provider Unicom, which specialises in business-to-business connections,
has this week filed accounts for FY06 and reported record results with a 19% increase
in sales and a 43% rise in profits to the end of April 2007, its eighth trading
year.
The Manchester-based business saw turnover increase from £31.0 million to £37.1
million, with pre-tax profits at £7.6 million compared to £5.2 million to the end
of April 2006.
View Press Release
Thursday, 27th September 2007
Unicom celebrates Microsoft Tech Track 100 ranking
Unicom is celebrating this week as the company will be named in this weekend’s Sunday
Times list of the UK’s fastest growing tech companies by turnover growth over a
three year period.
This is Unicom’s second ranking in 2007 confirming its place as the fastest growing
telecom company in the UK - having already been ranked in April this year as the
96th fastest growing company in the UK by profit growth over a three year period
in the Sunday Times Profit Track, and appearing in both the Fast Track and Profit
Track tables for 2006.
View Press Release
Thursday, 2nd August 2007
Unicom appoints new financial director
The Board of Universal Utilities PLC, trading as Unicom, has appointment Tony Eagleton
as Financial Director with immediate effect.
Tony has a wide variety of experience in the professional and commercial sectors.
After graduating from Leeds University, he qualified as a Chartered Accountant during
a 10 year spell with Deloitte & Touche, before becoming the first Executive
Finance Director of the Rugby Football League.
View Press Release
Thursday, 19th July 2007
Unicom hits 500 million calls, 1 billion minutes
Telecom service provider Unicom has hit a double milestone.
One of the company’s 60,000 customers has made the 500 millionth call routed by
the company since it launched, and at around about the same time Unicom also completed
1 billion minutes of call time sold.
“We add around 20 million calls and something like 40 million minutes of talk time
every month,” said Chris Earle, Operations Director of Unicom.
View Press Release
Monday, 14th May 2007
Unicom launches second graduate training scheme
Unicom has launched its second graduate recruitment scheme, with the interview process
starting in June.
Unicom - consistently ranks highly in the Fast Track family of lists of successful
private businesses - provides telecom, broadband and website design packages to
small business.
View Press Release
Thursday, 3rd May 2007
Unicom looks to Europe for growth
Unicom is conducting a feasibility study into expansion into five new European markets.
The company, which has nine UK regional offices, recently made its third appearance
in the Fast Track 100 family of lists of Britain's most successful private companies.
View Press Release
Monday, 23rd April 2007
Small business want St. George's Day as Bank Holiday
Small businesses surveyed this week have voted in favour of making St George's Day
a national bank holiday.
That was the finding of a survey conducted by Unicom, which specialises in telecoms
and broadband services for small businesses, as Monday 23rd April passed by relatively
unnoticed once again.
View Press Release
Tuesday, 23rd January 2007
Something to shout about - and Peter has just what he needs
Audio and public address equipment supplier Peter Barnard has something to shout
about – he’s won a new car.
Peter, who owns Sigma AV Ltd in Bourne, Lincolnshire, became the proud owner of
a shiny new red Ford Ka having been entered into a prize draw when he signed up
with Manchester based telecom service provider, Unicom.
View Press Release
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