Kordia and Orcon Join Forces

25 October 2012

Kordia and Orcon Join Forces

Combined business – Kordia New Zealand – positioned for strong growth

Kordia Group has today announced the integration of its two New Zealand telecommunications businesses, Kordia Networks and Orcon.

The business will be called Kordia New Zealand.

Group CEO Geoff Hunt says that on the back of 27% growth in Orcon and 16% growth in Kordia Networks in the year to June 2012, the Group has been evaluating the best format for its network business in anticipation of ongoing growth in a changed and more competitive telecommunications environment.

“Today’s announcement positions us to be solutions-led, combining the fast, innovative style of Orcon with the network quality of Kordia. It will create New Zealand’s most innovative and reliable provider of business-critical information services.

“The move will also enable us to eliminate the increasing duplication of network infrastructure and associated support staff. And as both businesses have developed services for business customers in parallel, the time is also right to rationalise the product set and present a simple, unified offering to this market,” he says.

Orcon will remain a key brand focussed on residential and small business customers.

”This is an exciting chapter for Kordia as we refine the network business for ongoing growth,” he says.

The CEO for the Kordia New Zealand business will be Scott Bartlett, who currently heads Orcon.

“Kordia New Zealand will have four areas of focus: media (broadcast and content management and delivery); advanced telecommunications services for business, specialised networks and internet services.”

Scott Bartlett says the Kordia New Zealand business will have a turnover of $161m and 320 staff.

“The Kordia standard of service will ultimately be applicable to all business customers and Orcon’s skills in speed to market capability for new products will provide leadership in moving forward,” he says.

The integration is proposed to follow a period of staff consultation which will see employees provide feedback on recommended changes before final decisions are made on the new structure.

Recommended changes include outsourcing Orcon’s remaining 50 Auckland call centre positions to New Zealand partner Datacom, to be resourced out of its Manila operation. There will be approximately nine redundancies across the rest of the business.

CEO Scott Bartlett says many affected call centre staff could find jobs at Australia’s second largest DSL broadband provider, iiNet, which operates a call centre in Auckland.

About Kordia Group:

Kordia is a $400m turnover, high-growth company with 1400 staff across Australia and New Zealand.

Kordia owns an extensive telecommunications network in New Zealand and is the major provider of television and radio broadcast facilities. Kordia provides tailored network and technology solutions to enable customers to succeed.

In Australia, Kordia provides design, build and maintenance services to the broadcast and mobile telecommunications sectors as well as engineering services throughout the region.

The name Kordia comes from the Latin ‘accordia’ meaning harmony – bringing people and technology together as one.

ENDS

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