UKFast hungry for more data centres as profits soar
UKFAST, the ambitious Internet services group, is preparing further major investment in data centres after posting a five-fold surge in annual profits from £720,000 to £3.5m.
Turnover in the year to the December 31 2011 rose from £12.1m to £16m, and is on course to exceed £20m for 2012. Ebitda this year is set to double from £5m in 2011 to between £10m to £11m.
The 160-strong Manchester business founded and run by award-winning entrepreneur Lawrence Jones told TheBusinessDesk.com he is hungry for further growth, particularly in the data centres sector, which is already a huge focus for UKFast with three sites acquired and under development on Trafford Park.
He said: “It is a really exciting time, financially were performing really well, and operationally we’re working on the new data centres 24 hours a day.
“Our investment and growth in this area will bring much needed competition to the market in Manchester. Our high standards, fair pricing structure and excellence of service will, I am sure, be welcomed by the business community.”
Mr Jones said he has been offered a £25m facility from two lenders which he said would be used to fund further expansion in data centres, if a deal is agreed,
The launch of the data centres gives UKFast much better control of one of its biggest costs – server space.
With listed company Telecity buying-up a number of smaller providers such as UKGrid, price competition has been reduced.
When completed, UKFast’s four data centres will have capacity of 5.5MVA and the company will be a significant player in the colocation market and be Manchester’s largest privately-owned data centre provider.
Mr Jones said: “I want to put Manchester on the map for the best data centres in the UK. We have got cash to play with – our marketing budget for this year is more than our turnover was five years ago, so we are ready to compete.”
