Gerry Drew to head up Spanish operations as Opera Telecom’s international expansion continues and record growth is announced
Opera Telecom, the fastest growing international provider of premium-rate mobile services, has appointed former O2 Commercial Director, Gerry Drew, as Managing Director of its Spanish operations and as Head of Special Projects within Opera Telecom UK.
Drew’s appointment is part of Opera Telecom’s rapid recruitment drive to grow the company and expand into new and emerging mobile markets across the world. Since its foundation in November 2000, the company has developed operations in the UK, Ireland, USA, Poland, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine. Drew will build on this international success within the Spanish mobile services industry, which has grown phenomenally over the past 18 months, and he will be responsible for establishing Opera Telecom’s presence in Spain.
Opera Telecom is predicting rapid international business growth at a time when many of its competitors are experiencing a downturn in revenues. The company achieved a 100% increase in profits and turnover in the year ending May 2004, with revenues at £90.4 million and profits at £5.4 million, and further business expansion is planned during the next 12 months.
Commenting on his appointment, Drew says, “Premium-rate mobile services have taken Europe by storm over the last three years and increasing numbers of companies are augmenting mobile technologies into their marketing programmes to raise brand awareness and generate revenue. Using our own switching infrastructure, Opera Telecom is able to direct all traffic to the UK operations centre, meaning it can offer customers cheaper rates and better margins than they would receive in the local markets. This gives us a strong competitive advantage as we embark on the Spanish mobile market.”
Drew continues, “This is therefore an exciting time to be joining the company. There are more than 38 million mobile users in Spain and this figure continues to grow month-by-month, as does the volume of fixed line SMS messages, which has grown over 800% since the beginning of the year [Source: 160 Characters.org]. These figures undoubtedly make Spain a growth market for Opera Telecom, and I look forward to growing and developing that side of the business over the coming years.”
Prior to joining Opera Telecom, Drew was Commercial Director for the online division of O2, managing three teams – one of which was the SMS Broker start-up responsible for winning high-profile, interactive broadcast business, including I’m a Celebrity, Pop Idol and Big Brother. Before this, he was Sales Director for World Online, the UK division of Europe’s largest and fastest growing Internet Services Provider.