UKFast.Net Limited (trading as UKFast) was a

business-to-business Business-to-business (B2B or, in some countries, BtoB) refers to trade and commercial activity where a business sees other businesses as its customer base. This typically occurs when: * A business sources materials for its production process for ...

internet hosting An Internet hosting service is a service that runs servers connected to the Internet, allowing organizations and individuals to serve content or host services connected to the Internet. A common kind of hosting is web hosting. Most hosting provi ...

company based in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

, England. It was principally known for managed hosting, cloud services, and co-location. The business owned and operates its data centre complex in

Trafford Park Trafford Park is an area of the metropolitan borough of Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, opposite Salford Quays on the southern side of the Manchester Ship Canal, southwest of Manchester city centre and north of Stretford. Until the la ...

. In 2019, the company employed more than 365 people and in 2018 achieved revenues of £53.9 million. It provided services to more than 5,000 clients including the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

, the

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and the

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. Since June 2022, UKFast.Net Limited and ANS Group Limited, which are both controlled by private equity group Inflexion, merged and have become ANS.

Company history

UKFast was founded in September 1999 by Welsh businessman Lawrence Jones and his wife Gail Jones. In 2007, the company moved its head office to the 28th floor of City Tower in Manchester. It acquired further space on the 16th floor, before moving in 2013 to a campus at 1 Archway in the Birley Fields area of

Hulme Hulme () is an inner city area and electoral ward of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England, immediately south of Manchester city centre. It has a significant industrial heritage. Historically in Lancashire, the name Hulme is derived from ...

, Manchester. In 2013, the firm launched eCloud, a range of cloud hosting services whose hardware infrastructure reportedly cost £12 million to build. In that year, the business turned over £23.4 million. For the year ending 31 December 2014, UKFast reported a 24 per cent turnover increase from £23.4 million to £28.9 million. Between 2011 and 2015, UKFast invested more than £25 million into capital expenditure projects including the development of four data centres and the flagship UKFast Campus. In 2013, UKFast opened an office in

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and in 2015 opened a further office in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 2014, founder Lawrence Jones rejected a reported £200 million takeover bid amidst a trend of

web hosting A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that hosts websites for clients, i.e. it offers the facilities required for them to create and maintain a site and makes it accessible on the World Wide Web. Companies providing web ho ...

consolidation, citing that the business was still growing. In 2016, UKFast doubled the size of its headquarters by securing a further of space at 3 Archway, Birley Fields, adjacent to its existing building. In 2018, a 30% stake of UKFast was sold to private equity firm Inflexion for around £120 million On 31 October 2019, CRN reported "Lawrence Jones quits UKFast following sexual misconduct allegations – Financial Times article accused Jones of sexual assault and harassment last week". Jones' wife and current UKFast managing director Gail Jones took over his responsibilities, according to the article. On 6 May 2020, the Joneses exited the business along with Secarma through a sale to existing private equity investor Inflexion. On 1 December 2023, Lawrence Jones was sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for two rapes and a sexual assault after a trial at Manchester Crown Court. He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.

Awards and accreditations

Between 2005 and 2009, UKFast won six Internet Service Providers Association awards and was named "Best Hosting Provider" for four years running. UKFast received the Data Centre Solutions Awards' "Private Cloud Product of the Year" in 2012 and the DatacenterDynamics Award for "Innovation in Outsourcing" in 2013. In the same year, UKFast received the National Business Awards "Employer of the Year" award and the

Institute of Customer Service An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

"Employee Engagement Strategy of the Year" award. UKFast has also featured in ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' "100 Best Small Companies to Work For" and the Great Place to Work Institute's "Best Workplaces" lists, placing 7th and 8th respectively in 2019, 9th and 25th respectively in 2018, and 5th in both lists in 2017. They placed 28th and 12th respectively in 2014, 25th and 5th respectively in 2013, and 45th and 7th respectively in 2012.

References

External links

UKFast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ukfast Blog hosting services Cloud computing providers Companies based in Manchester Internet properties established in 1999 Internet hosting Web hosting 1999 establishments in England