Zen targets £200m turnover as part of five-year growth plan

Posted by on 2 Sep 2021

Rochdale-based internet provider Zen is planning to more than double its turnover to £200m as part of its five-year business strategy.

Zen Internet’s turnover is currently £91m but CEO Paul Stobart said a raft of new appointments to the company’s executive team meant they were well positioned for growth.

Existing employees Dave Barber and Paul Sinclair have been promoted to the newly created roles of portfolio management director and marketing director respectively and will sit on executive committee with immediate effect.

In addition, Zen has also appointed Dean Burdon to the newly created role of customer experience director to oversee all of Zen’s operational activity across provisioning, onboarding, technical support, customer service and customer engineering.

Burdon has two decades of experience in customer service, including six years at TalkTalk, and will also join the executive committee.

Steve Warburton, currently executive committee member and MD of Zen’s partner division, will take on additional responsibility as MD for Zen Retail.  In this role, he will oversee the company’s growth strategy for residential and small business customers.

Zen’s executive committee, led by Mr Stobart, also includes people and culture director Ayshea Robertson, finance director Matt Kay, managing director business division Martin O’Donnell, and technology director John Lyons.

Zen employs more than 550 people across offices in Rochdale and Leeds and recently came out top of the annual broadband survey by Which?

On the new appointments and company’s expansion strategy, Mr Stobart said: “We have an ambitious plan to drive growth across ultrafast, cloud and communications, with the aim of more than doubling our revenue to £200m over the next five years.

“Our people-first ethos, our passion for the customer, and our determination to do the right thing by all our stakeholders, including our people, customers, suppliers, our local communities and the environment, sets us apart, we believe, from others in the market.

“I am delighted with these appointments. Promoting two senior managers to the executive committee demonstrates the emphasis we place on developing internal talent within the business. Where appropriate, though, we will continue to bring in fresh talent to give the team additional bench-strength.”

Zen Internet has also pledged to become net zero by 2028, sooner than any of the other main broadband providers.

Zen’s commitment to becoming net zero means the business will remove more carbon emissions from the environment than it generates, further aligning with its B Corporation certification achieved in September 2020.