‘Bath companies are giving people work – and hope’

The chief executive of internet service provider Truespeed has said the Bath business community can look back with “pride” at what it was able to achieve during a difficult period for the city.

Truespeed is set to return as the headline sponsor of the Bath Business Awards 2021 on Wednesday, November 10, at Bath Pavilion.

Truespeed, which is based on Lower Bristol Road, was itself a winner of the Small Business of the Year Award when the ceremony was last staged in 2019.

Founded by Evan Wienburg, pictured, in 2014, the broadband supplier has grown its operations and network, which has been rolled out across more than 200 communities in rural and urban areas, stretching to the outskirts of Portishead and down to Frome.

From a headcount of six, the company now employs more than 135 staff and 150 subcontractors, with plans for continued growth as it seeks to connect another 450,000 properties over the next five years.

Mr Wienburg said that, speaking to businesses of all sizes across the region, everyone had found the previous 18 months “very difficult”.

Mr Wienburg said: “The demand for fantastic broadband is higher but the ability to deliver it is still hampered by the fact that people can’t work together as well as they did before.

“I’m not going to moan about the pandemic because that would sound trite. I’m grateful that we are in a growth sector. The Government allowed us to continue working, we were allowed to continue connecting people all the way through because it’s something that communities need.”

Mr Wienburg said generosity had been needed to help some businesses to survive. Truespeed played its part in that by not charging customerfacing businesses in its network for its service when they were unable to generate revenue from their workspace.

Mr Wienburg said: “The community here in Bath should look back with a bit of pride, especially those who worked in the civic process, those that were helping others, those who were feeding the homeless or by providing meals for people who couldn’t afford it.”

He said that Truespeed felt “a part” of the city and that was why it was sponsoring the return of the Bath Business Awards in order to support its companies and business people.

He said: “Headline sponsor sounds like a ridiculous thing to say – we sponsor the Bath Business Awards because we just want to be part of a fantastic group of people and companies that are delivering value.

“They’re delivering into the economy, they’re giving people work, and a vision for the future, and hope, things that were in short supply during Covid when people really didn’t understand what was going on.

“Why do we sponsor the Bath Business Awards? Because it is the right thing to do.”