‘We’re here to stay!’
Local management complete buyout of Arden Eurona Broadband, bringing the fast-growing rural broadband brand back into Irish hands.
The future of one of Ireland's fastest growing broadband brands is back in Irish hands after local management led a buyout of the business.
Based in Cavan and Roscommon, Arden and Brisknet were established in 2007 with a particular focus on pioneering the delivery of reliable high-speed, next generation broadband services to rural parts of the country.
In 2013, Spanish-owned Eurona (later Global Satellite Technologies SL) acquired Arden and Brisnet, further bolstering the company's capabilities and reach.
“We had a very good amicable relationship with them for almost 12 years,” says Barry Wilson, the Belturbet entrepreneur who founded Arden nearly two decades ago. “It was a very productive relationship. We joined [with Eurona] when we needed to, to scale up as we had ambitions to do back then. In 2013, we were selling three meg broadband. Now we're selling 150MB broadband on fixed wireless. We're also offering 500, 1,000, and 2,000 on fibre. So the sky is the limit.”
In January 2021 Eurona Arden became the first retailer in Ireland to connect a premises on NBI's fibre rollout under the National Broadband Plan — the first step to bringing connectivity to one in five rural family farms.
Last year, an opportunity presented to purchase elements of the Madrid headquartered Eurona business. Barry engaged his fellow Arden shareholders — Carmel Brady and Paul Cullen — in launching a Management Buyout (MBO). Talks took place over four months, with an undisclosed deal agreed.
“The deal is closed,” says Barry confidently. “We've been treated very well. For us, taking that leap of faith, we see the business has a decent customer portfolio, a robust product portfolio, and together that shapes up for a good future.”
If there was any evidence needed as to the demand for such services, it's the fall-out from Storm Éowyn, which left 270,000 subscribers without broadband. Arden and Brisnet took on hundreds of new customers from other fibre providers after the storm.
“We've grown the business since 2007 from zero to where we are now, and see a very good upward trajectory for the coming years. There are others who have come into the market and gone just as quick. We're here to stay,” says Barry.