UKFast hails strong first half and targets £40m for year

Manchester’s UKFast is on track to “defy Brexit uncertainty” with another “outstanding year”, including three “record-breaking” deals in the first half of 2016.

The fast-growing firm declared £34.3 million in turnover in 2015 and is “on target” to achieve £40 million in 2016 through a combination of securing new business and maintaining “high customer retention”, said the firm.

The growth comes as the hosting and cloud services firm reaches its half-year, although it hasn’t announced what the half-year sales and profits are.

UKFast CEO Lawrence Jones said: “We’re in a fantastic position, being big enough to deliver solutions for large enterprises, but small enough to guarantee exemplary British customer service.

“Businesses running e-commerce and mission-critical infrastructure need to pick up the phone and know they’ve got a great organisation behind them and people who are accountable.”

He said more than 60 percent of the company’s growth last year came from existing customers growing their businesses and developing their solutions with UKFast.

Jones said the firm was on track for EBITDA of £19 million in 2016, following increased investment in personnel and infrastructure.

Jones’ cyber security firm Secarma announced the acquisition of application security specialist Pentest in July.

@AntonySavvas