Redbus says 2002 is 'sales year'

NEWS Redbus is calling 2002 its 'sales year' as it looks to cash in on its nine European facilities following a bad 2001. Pre-tax losses for 2001 grew from £53.3m in 2000 to £65.2m. The company said it now plans to expand its sale force to get business going having spent much of last year building new co-location facilities. The company's founder, Cliff Stanford, told silicon.com that in 2001 Redbus "had nothing to sell". The UK, he said, was fully sold until September, while some European sites weren't available until September. Stanford added: "There's a lot of pent-up demand for co-location." The company's new flagship site in London's Docklands opened at the beginning of the year and is completely empty. Of its two other London sites, one is completely full and the other is three quarters empty. The company targets large companies - such as AOL, which now routes all of its European traffic through Redbus, Frankfurt - as well as very small organisations. It's the latter which will make up a large part of its sales. Stanford added: "We've got no reason to go bust - we've got no debt."