Kcom rebrand leaves analysts unconvinced

The rebranding comes just three months after Hull City Council dumped its remaining 30 per cent stake in the firm.

The firm will continue to use the Kingston Communications name for its activities in Hull and East Yorkshire, as well for serving SMEs and channel partners with communications services.
Its other market-facing brands, including Affiniti, Smart421, Jam IP and Eclipse Internet, will also live on.

Kay Stevenson, PR manager at Kcom, said: “As the group has grown and got more operating business within the group, the Kingston Communications (Hull) Plc name does not reflect the fact we are a national business or the scope of work we do. We are now not just a communications business, but also work in IT services.

“The group name was also the same as our Kingston Communications operating unit, which sometimes caused confusion.”

However, Keith Humphreys, managing consultant at research house euroLAN, said: “I can see the need to move away from Kingston geographically, but to create a new name ­ especially one as contrived as Kcom ­ seems a bit unnecessary.”

Clive Longbottom, analyst at Quocirca, said: “Kingston Communications has been funded by Kingston and, until recently, has had a monopoly in Kingston. It’s now decided to break out and take on BT, but to do that it has to be far more aggressive.”