Northern Ireland broadband group Fibrus carried out a new round of redundancies at the end of last year, it has emerged.
The telecoms group sought to cut 48 roles from its 324-strong Viberoptix network installation subsidiary, in a process that concluded just days before Christmas.
It marked the second round of redundancies initiated by the group last year.
It’s understood Fibrus initially sought around 60 redundancies in a process launched during January 2024.
At the time, the group indicated the move was largely confined to Viberoptix, as it completed the roll-out of its full fibre broadband network in the north.
Fibrus acquired the Coalisland-based network engineering firm in 2022, two years after it won Stormont’s £165m Project Stratum contract to deliver full fibre broadband to tens of thousands of rural premises across the north.
The Irish News can reveal the latest round of redundancies is linked to a wider restructuring of the Fibrus group.
Part of that involves amalgamating the Fibrus network delivery team (Fibrus CDO) with Viberoptix.
It’s understood the latest process to cut around 15% of the Viberoptix workforce was launched in mid-November, with the redundancies completed by December 20.
The broadband group has declined to state how many people have left their roles following the launch of the redundancy processes.
In a statement, the company said: “Fibrus is nearing the completion of its planned build programme in Northern Ireland.
“We have restructured our teams to support our business priorities and enable the next phase of growth.
“We have hired, and will continue to hire, customer focused roles in line with business expansion plans.”
Fibrus was also asked to clarify its position on union recognition within its workplaces.
The telecoms group has not responded to the question.
Launched in September 2018 by Conal Henry and Dominic Kearns, Fibrus was acquired by Infracapital, the infrastructure equity investment arm of M&G Plc, in May 2020.
Alongside £325m in government contracts secured in Northern Ireland and Cumbria to date, Fibrus has a £320m borrowing facility with a consortium of banks to support the roll-out of its own commercial broadband operation.
The group, which has also committed around £200m in equity funding, said it is fully funded for its remaining network roll-out.
But the group acknowledged “challenging economic circumstances” in the last financial year, registering a £58m loss before tax on a turnover of £17.6m.
Viberoptix, which had registered a pre-tax profit of £12m in 2023, fell to a pre-tax loss of £208,654 in the latest financial year.
The period saw the telecoms group spend heavily to build its network capacity and win new customers.
Some £153m was spent on infrastructure, while its staff bill soared 39% year-on-year to £45.7m.
The spending did yield some results, with customer connections more than doubling to 78,465 by the end of March 2024.
The group said its customer base had reached 100,000 by the the end of 2024.
