Demand pushes M247 into £2m move

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Posted by James[UH], 09-14-2011, 05:03 AM

Demand pushes M247 into £2m move

Internet infrastructure provider M247 has seen demand for its services grow at such a rate it is poised to expand its base in a £2m move which will boost its capacity by five times.

Trafford Park-based M247 specialises in providing internet services for businesses from its data centre in Manchester, with a state of the art network that connects it with the world's largest internet exchanges.

As well as being able to host data for businesses of all sizes, it also owns the infrastructure that provides connectivity to the internet.

That includes facilities in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and Brussels and, unusually for a provider outside the capital, means that M247 is able to bypass London completely.

The company was founded in 2003 and moved to Manchester from London in 2009 to take advantage of lower property costs.

Privately-owned M247 has its own in-house development team, which managing director David Buckle says has enabled it control costs and ensure service quality to its customers.

He said: “We have customers of all sizes in every time zone in the world, which range from people who pay us £20 a year to $1m.

“The traffic though our global network is equivalent to 10 per cent of of the total UK internet traffic.”

M247's turnover is currently growing by 3 per cent every month and it is poised to take additional space at its current site with a £2m investment that will increase its capacity five-fold, doubling its staff of 32 by the time it becomes fully operational.

The business, which has more than 120,000 customers, posted revenues of £3m in the year to April, 2011, up from £2m, and is predicted to top £5m in the current period.

In 2010, M247 was ranked the fourth fastest growing technology company in the north of England by Deloitte.

A key priority for the business is its R&D function, which is dedicated to ensuring its service is as energy efficient as possible, making it greener and cutting costs.

Another key area of research is developing ways to host client's data at multiple sites across the globe which pushes it closer to the end user, making it quicker and more cost effective to access.

Mr Buckle said: “For us to grow we need to constantly invest in our infrastructure and R&D to make sure we are at the cutting edge.

“We are competing in a global market, but with the breadth of the infrastructure that we have, we are in an ideal position to give confidence to business users.”

M247's expansion has been aided by an investment from the former chairman of Leighs Paints, Brian Leigh-Bramwell, which was sold in July.

The Bolton-based industrial paints manufacturer was bought by US giant Sherwin-Williams Company for an undisclosed sum after 151 years under family ownership.