Telecom Plus Share News (TEP)

Utility services provider Telecom Plus is targeting a 20 per cent increase in customers this year after reporting record revenues and profits.The firm reported full year pre-tax profits up 11.8% to £30.7m, while revenues went up 12.6% to £471.5m, both in line with expectations.Earnings per share were up 12.3% to 33.8p and the company pushed up its full year dividend 23% to 27p.The supplier of gas, electricity, telephony and broadband services said that the number of services it supplied was up by 18% to 1.38m and its customer base was above 415,000.It's churn rate - the proportion of customers leaving the firm for other suppliers - fell to 1.4% a month from 1.7% the previous year.The company added that it we expected to see a modest further reduction in churn over the course of the current year as the overall quality of our customer base improved.However, the firm said rising energy bills meant it was reducing its gross margin guidance, which was now expected to be within a range of 13% to 15%, below the 14% to 16% range it had previously indicated, for the foreseeable future."We have seen strong growth in the number of services we are providing and an improvement in the quality of our customer base, which gives us good visibility over future revenues and margins, and confidence that our earnings for the current year will be comfortably ahead of the level we have just reported, notwithstanding the increasing investment we are making in growing the business," said Executive Chairman Charles Wigoder. "Our intention is to continue to build upon the momentum which the business has developed over the last few years, to further increase both the quality and quantity of new customers being gathered, and we anticipate service numbers this year will grow by around 20%," he added.