Colt is an established leader in delivering integrated network, data centre, voice and IT services to major organizations, midsized businesses and wholesale customers worldwide. Colt was established in 1992 in UK and operates in 22 European countries with its own 47,000km European network and transatlantic network capacity.

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Newton Freire, Country Director Diageo España y Portu-
galNewton Freire, Country Director Diageo España y
Portugal
Steve Cahill, Country Manager Spain, General Manager
& Vice President Shared Service Centre Barcelona,
Colt Technology Services
Treasurer of the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain
Colt is an established leader in delivering integrated
network, data centre, voice and IT services to major
organizations, midsized businesses and wholesale
customers worldwide. Colt was established in 1992 in
UK and operates in 22 European countries with its
own 47,000km European network and transatlantic
network capacity. Colt owns metropolitan area
networks in 42 major European cities with direct fibre
connections into over 20,000 buildings and 20 carrier
neutral Colt data centres. Colt is listed on the London
Stock Exchange and directly connected to 23 stock
exchanges across Europe.
In 1998, Colt expanded into Spain since when we
have made local investments of over €450M. Spain is
Colt’s fourth largest country with revenues just below
€200M and 1100 employees based in Madrid, Barce-
lona and Valencia. Our key market focus in Spain is
targeted around Financial Services, Media Health,
Public Sector and other telecommunication infras-
tructure providers.
It appears that little by little we are managing to
come out of the crisis that has especially affected
Spain since 2008. How has Colt survived through
these hard times and how has managed to avoid
it?
Colt has managed to weather the storms of the
economic crisis since 2008. In fact in Spain we have
grown our workforce by some 400 people in the last
four years creating significant consumption for the
local economy whilst many other companies were
regretfully forced to make cost savings and reduce
job levels.
In fact Colt is reputed to be the largest UK employer in
Spain and we have managed to develop a business
with very low levels of attrition compared to the norm
in the market place. This has been enabled by our
focus on Colt values: customer, ownership, leadership
and team work, whose first letters make up our com-
pany name.
On the other hand, is it correct to say that Spain
plays an important part for Colt?
Building upon Colt’s initial investments in Spain, Colt
established the European Customer Support Service
Centre, based in Barcelona in 2006. We have 750
people providing, 24x7x365 days per year, technical
and non-technical support for Colt’s 30,000 custo-
mers spread across 22 countries. We have plans for
further growth in 2015.
What are the plans for the company over the mid
and long term future?
Colt has advised its intention to pay €130M in cash to
acquire the telecommunications company KVH based
in Japan. Certainly, this expansion to new markets in
Asia represents a very significant step for Colt, and
will provide us with scale and complementary capabi-
lity in key Asian cities, including Tokyo, the world’s
number one city economy, as well as Singapore,
Hong Kong and Seoul.
From your point of view as Director, do you belie-
ve that there is a barrier which limits investment
between Spain and the United Kingdom?
Being part of the same continent is one of the key
factors benefiting the business between Spain and
UK, while our own pan-European optical fibre
network is a really important advantage for our custo-
mers seeking international providers that can deliver
one stop high-class service in many locations as Colt
does across 42 different European cities.
What are the benefits that the British Chamber of
Commerce in Spain provides for Colt?
Through Colt’s membership of the Chamber we have
been able to promote Colt by attending many high
level events with ‘C’ level business people & politi-
cians from both Spain and the UK. In our continued
efforts to market and widen awareness of the Colt
brand in Spain we have had the opportunity to spon-
sor a number of major events in the BCC calendar.The
three words that really define the Chamber are heigh-
tened brand awareness. It has enabled us to develop
some excellent working relationships with many of
the Embassy people who have provided invaluable
support for our business, both at a strategic and tacti-
cal level. We look on them as true business partners.
Membership of the Chamber has also led to us ope-
ning other relationships with Spanish based associa-
tions.
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Colt is reputed to be the largest
UK employer in Spain and we
have managed to develop a
business with very low levels of
attrition compared to the norm
in the market place
“
”
Three words that define the Chamber: heightened brand awareness
Steve Cahill, Country Manager Spain, General Manager
& Vice President Shared Service Centre Barcelona, Colt Technology Services
Treasurer of the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain
“ ”