THE UK’s largest independent provider of business to business telecoms has been named the best of its kind.

Onecom employees 400 people at its headquarters in Whiteley, with regional offices in Shoeburyness, Leeds, Telford and Cardiff.

It took the title of Best Mobile Service and Solution Provider at the Mobile Industry Awards – as well as collecting the Growth Award in recognition of its expansion through organic means and acquisitions.

Judges praised the company for versatility and an ability to give businesses a competitive edge using products from a range of suppliers.

The judges said: “Onecom’s supplier-agnostic approach reinforces its independent values and allows it to constantly assess the market and evaluate various offerings. All of this ensures it can craft a market-leading value proposition to its customers.

“Onecom was able to demonstrate a 15 per cent increase in pre-tax profitability and a focus on the best products and services to customers.”

Onecom chief executive Darren Ridge said: “Onecom’s mission is to be the best at what we do, providing technology and solutions that go above and beyond the norm to give businesses we work with the advantage in an increasingly competitive world.

“These awards are recognition that we are meeting that challenge, and underline how our customers benefit from our scale and the expertise of our teams as we continue to grow.”

Onecom is on a three-year growth programme, backed by £100million of funding from LDC and Areas Managemnt Corporation. It recently acquired the businesses in the Cardiff-based Glamorgan Telecom Group.

High profile customers include Farrow & Ball, Thwaites, Celtic Manor and 118 UK and its partners include Samsung, Apple, Gamma, Mitel and Virtual1. It doubled its revenues from 2014-19.

Last autumn, it announced it was planning to hire 125 more staff across its offices after securing the £100m investment earlier in the year.

  • Mr Ridge, who founded Onecom in 2002, recently returned to the job of chief executive after Ben Dowd left the business for personal reasons. Onecom said Mr Ridge had remained closely involved in its leadership over the past two years.