Telecom Plus (LSE:TEP), trading as Utility Warehouse, reported adjusted pre-tax profit of £132.2m for the year ended 31 March, up 4.7% from £126.3m, but the more significant number arrived alongside the results: guided profit for the next financial year will drop to between £80m and £90m as the company begins spending around £55m annually on a five-year growth drive.
Revenue rose 5.6% to £1,941.1m, driven by higher customer numbers, though an unseasonably warm winter reduced energy consumption and held the profit result to the bottom of the group's previously guided range of £132m to £138m.
Total customers grew 23.3% to 1.43m, lifted by 193,000 fixed-line and broadband customers acquired from TalkTalk; organic customer growth ran at 10.3% to 1.26m, maintaining a double-digit trajectory, though churn edged up to 14.2% from 13.7% as energy market rivals offered fixed-price tariffs below the Ofgem price cap.
The five-year plan targets more than one million multiservice customers by FY31, around double the current base, with investment directed at the partner sales channel, brand building, digital infrastructure and the core multiservice proposition.
"These multiservice customers are the strongest driver of long-term value, staying with us for longer and generating higher returns," chief executive Stuart Burnett said.
The plan is expected to bring net debt to adjusted EBITDA to around 1.0x by FY31.
