Introducing the new poster boy for Gloucestershire tech firms
In a sector that likes pioneering spirits there's a new tech champion for Gloucestershire – no, not in Cheltenham, but an old hand from Gloucester reemerging to steal the show and lead the way.
Dear reader,
I hope your week is going well. Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Raikes Journal ahead of Friday’s full-members edition.
As long-standing followers of Gloucestershire’s fortunes Fasthosts’ move into the Forum Digital in Gloucester struck us as hugely significant for the city and for the county too.
It nicely counterbalances the opening of the Hub8 MX centre in the middle of Cheltenham last year, a new home of cyber-focused firms.
Fasthosts’ move proves Gloucester can do just as well as its friends down the other end of the Golden Valley, if not better, not just in terms of the scale of the vision but in delivery too.
And it amused us here at Raikes to stand back and think about it for a moment - Gloucestershire’s most high profile tech firm of the moment is a business that was born and bred in Gloucester, and its most high-profile development (for all the right reasons) is in the city centre too.
Does it not feel like a real shift in the city’s fortunes and status - or is it just us?
Couple that to the caveat that there is more to come - the opening of the four-star hotel at the Forum Digital should follow later this year, complete with impressive rooftop bar with views across to the Cathedral.
Yes, it shines a light on how much more needs to be done to bring everything else in Gloucester up to a similar standard, but if you wanted a catalyst could you have asked for a better one?
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Introducing the new poster boy for Gloucestershire tech firms
In a sector that likes pioneering spirits there's a new tech champion for Gloucestershire – no, not in Cheltenham, but an old hand from Gloucester reemerging to steal the show and lead the way.
By Andrew Merrell
When visitors from the North of England’s cyber sector came to Cheltenham last year they were impressed by a ‘can-do attitude’ reminiscent of what they envisaged San Francisco to be like.
The US city is synonymous with entrepreneurial, tech-focused folk collaborating on digital business ideas that may one day make them rich and might even change the world, and Cheltenham’s cyber community was giving off those vibes in style.
But if one company in Gloucestershire was first to write a backstory that fits the San Francisco stereotype – of a young entrepreneur developing a digital idea and growing it into a multi-million pound business before cashing in – it was Gloucester firm Fasthosts.
That was back in the late 1990s. Since then the story of how Andrew Michael’s A-Level project became a multi-million pound tech firm and made its founder rich when he sold it in 2006 has been all but forgotten, buried by time, the success of tech in Cheltenham and the Golden Valley Development.
Its a narrative that has left Gloucester, home to its share of cyber-related giants - somewhere out in the cold at times.
But all that changed yesterday (Wednesday, January 15) when Fasthosts stepped out of the shadows to officially reveal itself as the anchor tenant for the city’s new £107 million Forum Digital development - a modern firm to be admired and still a force to be reckoned with.
It’s amazing how people will look at you afresh in a new suit, or in this case, office!
Turnover at last count at Fasthosts was £45 million and profits were up from £4.8 million to £6.5 million. In other ways too it stands out. It’s one of the few firms managing to significantly shrink its carbon footprint as it grows too.
Today it provides data centre services for businesses, including web hosting and other online projects.
Suddenly the cold steel of The Forum Digital is coming to life and Gloucester is delivering its much talked about business quarter to bookend the city centre with the Docks and Quays to the South.
The move by Fasthosts into 19,000 square feet of office space at 2 Cathedral Walk is already being heralded as a game-changer for Gloucester.
Jeremy Hilton, leader of the city council, which owns the Forum – the most conspicuous sign of the local authority’s new status as an entrepreneurial organisation - said: “Fasthosts is our first tenant. We will be adding a four-star hotel to that and a 400-space car park too.
“The development is about creating more opportunity for businesses to come here and bringing more people to the city centre and Fasthosts will help spread confidence in that vision.”
The city council employed the services of design and development specialist Reef Group to deliver the scheme and the construction was done by Kier Group.
The momentum is greatly helped by the University of Gloucestershire’s significant investment just yards away across King’s Square.
Its new city centre campus is expected to open this year and bring thousands of students into the middle of Gloucester.
“It is all about creating a city centre that attracts in more investment. This (Fasthosts moving into the Forum) will help make other nearby buildings which also need investment suddenly much more attractive,” said Hilton, acknowledging also that the city still had work to do.
Dorian Wragg, partner and head of commercial property at Bruton Knowles, who was involved in the project as agents, said: “Fasthosts is a growing business that is a leader in its field. Moving here secures 250 or more jobs and it kickstarts the regeneration proper for the city.
“It is such an iconic building and a great opportunity. The move will help reignite growth across Gloucester and open the door, inviting more in the tech sphere to come here too. It is a hugely important move.”
Jon McGinty, managing director of city council, said: “The regeneration of King’s Square and surrounding area has been a focus for 10-15-20 years. To see it come to fruition in the shape of the Forum is overwhelmingly joyful.”
Gloucester MP Alex McIntyre, who was also at Fasthosts’ official event which saw Mayor of Gloucester Lorraine Campbell cut the ribbon to officially open the office space, said: “It is fantastic that Fasthosts, a Gloucester company, has chosen to invest and stay in the city.
“I am very excited now to see what the future holds for Gloucester. We will see more businesses coming to the Forum to join them and help generate even more economic growth for the city.
“This Government is really focused on growing the economy and I want to make sure Gloucester enjoys its share of that growth and that we bring more positive news for the city.”
Rupert Bedell is the new chief executive officer brought in to lead the dawn of a new era for Fasthosts.
“When we first began to consider moving out of Southgate House (on Southgate Street near the city’s Docks) we did consider a number of options for a new offices and there were sites in Cheltenham, as well as in the south of the county and out of county too,” said Bedell.
“But we always wanted to stay in the city. I am very glad we took this option. We want to be part of shaping the city’s future for the better.”
Bedell was speaking from one of the meeting rooms on the fourth floor of the new pink-coloured steel building that now greets those leaving Gloucester Railway Station heading for the city centre.
It’s a room framed on two sides by floor-to-ceiling glass windows, some featuring signature circular patterned metalwork said to represent the stained-glass of the city’s nearby Cathedral. The views are captivating.
As you would expect, Bedell is thoroughly enthused by the move, which he credits to his predecessor of six years, Simon Yeoman, whose time with the firm goes back to 2008.
He’s candid about the challenges the firm faces – much the same as any business whose staff have endured a disruption to a once settled daily office routine thanks to the Covid and an unsettled period since due to the move that quickly followed those dark days of the pandemic.
“My focus coming in has been the staff. They are the important people that make this business work,” he said.
Has the move worked the magic he hoped? There is talk of team-building, of emerging dinner clubs as staff explore the city, and social occasions as teams come together under one roof for the first time ever.
“Before the move many staff were in the office for maybe two days a week, but now they are coming in much more. You can feel the change. It’s very positive,” he said.
When we pause on a guided tour of the building, to peep inside the firm’s central operations room, it’s like looking in on air traffic control. Giant screens cover the front walls, each desk has still more screens, each are alive with data.
“We have customers ranging from individuals who just want to list a domain name to those who want to list 50 to those who run all the connections for the CCTV cameras on the M4.
“Whatever size you are, if you lose your website or ability to get online it is like the power going off to your business. It is critical someone is there to help you.
“We operate 24 hours a day to ensure we are always there in person. Where we are winning is that we put people first. We have real people ready to deal with any issues and they will stay with you until that issue is resolved.
“We employ all our staff and do not outsource. Yes, we do have a team in the Philippines, who deal with what you might call the low-hanging fruit when it comes to calls, but they are employed by us.
“That is so we can ensure we are always there for people right through the night.
“We are in a highly competitive market. If we tweak our price point at any time of day we see an immediate reaction.
“I think our focus, on how we deal with customers, is where we win against competitors like Amazon and the like. We don’t intend to change that.”
When he says ‘win’, Fasthosts is enjoying a surge in business.
“We’ve just had our best month ever, with nearly 4,000 new customers. We enjoyed record growth in 2024 of seven per cent. Previous to that it was three per cent. We want to see how long we can sustain that,” said Bedell.
“And we are very proud of our Trustpilot score, of 4.7 out of five too.”
The firm now has more than 1.1 million domains currently registered, more than 10,000 servers hosted across its UK data centres and manages more than 586,000 live customer mailboxes.
Most of its business is in the UK, but it does more than £1.5 milion in Europe and a similar amount in the rest of the world including the United States.
It is also delivering wins in other areas of the business which still perplex many other firms, such as its carbon footprint.
Fasthost’s last set of accounts show total energy consumption was down by nearly 30 per cent on the previous year, from 10.4 million kWH to £7.3million kWH. Drop in carbon footprint.
Yeoman, who is still with Fasthosts as his replacement beds in, talks about the business’s tight relationship with its sister business, Ionos.
Both are owned by the German giant, United Internet, which in 2023 recorded a €6.21 billion turnover.
In early 2024 Fasthosts migrated its primary data centre to Worcestershire to better manage its environmental footprint, with that facility now operating using 100 per cent renewable energy.
The Forum itself is also an ergonomic building.
“Customers and businesses of all kinds are increasingly having to account for their carbon footprints and look to do business with companies that can deliver on that front for them,” said Yoeman, explaining why the investment was a win-win.
Germany is not the only family the firm has abroad. That close working relationship with Ionnos and United Internet means it has colleagues in the United States of America, Spain, France and Italy.
Bedell, born and bred close to Dublin, Ireland, and whose career has been forged with some of the UK’s biggest banks, agreed all these ingredients were now being made more of and were having a positive impact.
“When staff may have been unsure of progression before, now they can see the scale of the business and the potential. It does make it more attractive.
“Saying that, we have some very long-serving staff here. One or two of the very first members of staff are still with the team now.”
Chelsea Hopkins, the firm’s social media and marketing manager, said the impact of the move and the new-look Fasthosts was already significant - not just for staff, but for opportunity in the county.
“I grew up in the Forest of Dean. What this move has done is shown me and my friends that if we don’t have to leave the county - to go to Bristol or wherever - to get a job in an exciting company in tech.”