Commander achieves growth

Almost a year after Commander Communications’ acquisition of systems integrater Volante, the voice service provider has announced it has achieved half-year revenues for the 2007 financial year (FY) of $506 million, up 59 percent on FY2006.

The financial announcement comes off the back of Commander’s non-cash depreciation charges announced on 1 February.

Commander’s managing director Adrian Coote (pictured) has maintained his FY2007 guidance of $1.1 - $1.2 billion in revenue and underlying EBITDA of $95 - $101 million.

Coote said the company has seen significant growth in uptake of its managed and professional services following the integration of Volante.

“The successful rollout of the Commander Centre franchises across regional Australia also underpins our first half successes,” said Coote.

Coote said much of Commander’s success was due to owner operated Commander Centre franchises which sell voice equipment and network services as well as ICT hardware and services to the SMB market.

“Each centre is branded and fitted out to give a consistent look and feel and receives a full range of support services from Commander,” he said.

The expansion of the managed services team and the combined Commander and Volante offering has manifested in a number of new customers, including a three-year IT managed services deal with Mitsubishi Motors Australia, said Coote.