Drew Kelton (Superloop)
Superloop has shaved off $3.3 million in headcount costs as the coronavirus pandemic forced it to made 30 workers redundant.
The reduction – valued at 10.7 per cent in permanent costs – came as the company saw significant reductions in its internet service business for student accommodation and the hospitality sector amid a nationwide lock-down.
Having temporarily reduced its staff working hours to four days a week in April, Superloop made the “prudent” decision to reduce its workforce.
Overall this year, Superloop saw its revenue fall by 9.11 per cent from $117.3 million to $106.6 million for the financial year ended 30 June 2020.
Broken down, wholesale and network infrastructure contributed more than half of this, amounting to $57 million.
Superloop’s broadband business, which includes ‘Guest Wi-Fi’, home broadband and residential NBN, plus internet supply to hotels and student accommodation hit $31.9 million.
Within this, the group saw a 64 per cent year-on-year growth in home broadband subscribers, which was offset by the decline in Guest Wi-Fi due to the pandemic’s impact on student accommodation and the planned retirement of non-core ‘services’ products.
Meanwhile, CyberHound, Superloop’s web filtering solution and also its outgoing CMS product brought up the remaining $18.1 million.
In terms of profit, the company also improved from last year’s $72 million loss, cutting down to $41 million.
This came from reducing operating costs by 14 per cent, which included staff costs, and also a $50 million reduction in capital expenditure, amounting to 70 per cent year-on-year.
According to Superloop, this was as a result of major network infrastructure completed in the last financial year, including the Australian NBN backhaul and international capacity.
With a company restructure complete, Superloop will now go into the new financial year with a focus on sales, monetising its own connectivity network.
Following the closure of the FY, Superloop's leadership changed hands with former NBN Co enterprise boss Paul Tyler stepping up to replace outgoing CEO Drew Kelton.
In a closing statement to investors, Kelton said: "We have completed the major infrastructure builds in both Australia and international, restructured our balance sheet, continued to drive financial discipline to realising an operating cash positive position, enabled early actions to manage the business in the COVID-19 environment, whilst selling more 'on net' services, with longer contracts and delivered them quicker."
