1. business and industrial

REAL
BUSINESS
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HOT 100
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industry – and defend growth
in an established one. We
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2010 rankings list
the uk’s fastest
growing firm
Sifting through this year’s Hot 100 data highlights
two things to me.
Firstly, just how hard and fast this recession hit
certain sectors. Despite performance being judged
over the past four years, several categories of
business still stand out.
Property, construction and retail all feature
prominently, yet ask almost anyone in those sectors
how the past 18 months have been and they’ll look
at you like you’ve asked if they can fly.
It’s an indicator of the kind of growth those
businesses were enjoying before the economic
crisis, and testament to their strength that they still
dominate the table.
Secondly, the Hot 100 is the measure of a solid
management team – however small – because you
simply don’t achieve this kind of growth without
building your business on the back of very good
people who understand diversification, innovation
ambition and cost control.
Take our number-one business, International
Plywood. Now being taken forward by a second
generation of family members, this firm is founded
on simple, logistics-based principles. Even though it
was hit hard by tightening margins, it’s still leading
the way with a sustainable proposition.
Intuitive businesspeople always stick to their
principles and instil them in their management
teams or families. Knowing when to sit back and do
what you do best is as much a part of a winner’s
mentality as knowing when to take a risk.
I think this year’s Hot 100 reflects that simple
lesson well.
Uncertainty, recession and a lack of available
credit were the watchwords of 2009.
So how did this year’s Hot 100 list of the UK’s
fastest-growing companies continue to grow their
sales, with many also increasing their profits, in such
a challenging period?
Was it because their sectors were protected?
With manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers,
recruitment firms, engineers, restaurants, travel
agents and a host of other trading activities featuring
in our list, it seems unlikely that this is the explanation.
Were their products and services superior to those
of their competitors? Did their sales teams simply
outperform? Perhaps it was the weakness of sterling?
Or did their competitors simply disappear as a result
of the recession, increasing their market share?
It is quite possible that these, or other factors,
benefited a number of our high-performing firms,
but the answer is probably more basic.
These are entrepreneurial businesses that
responded to the recession with sound strategies
and strong management teams. Businesses that
faced up to market challenges and continued their
upward path, sustaining – and often accelerating –
their growth.
We are inspired by their clarity of vision, their
strong leadership and their capable management. If
they can do it, then it must be achievable.
In a world that has lost its economic compass,
entrepreneurs have never been more important. It is
entrepreneurs that will lead us out of recession and
entrepreneurs that will generate our future wealth.
Well done to all those businesses featuring in this
year’s Hot 100. Please continue to show us the way.
Darryl Eales, chief executive,
LDC
Guy Rigby, head of entrepreneurs,
Smith & Williamson
REAL
BUSINESS
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HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK HOT
7
100
Rimex Metals
1
International
Plywood
Cash is tight. Margins are under pressure.
Growth is harder to achieve. But it’s not
all bad news. Out of the ashes of recession,
new industries are being hatched.
By: Kate Pritchard Photography: Richard Gleed
Since Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy at the tail end of 2008,
the economy has been teetering on the edge of a cliff. A woeful 24,368
companies had to shut up shop last year. Public debt soared to £844.5bn
– the equivalent of 60.2 per cent of GDP. And the financial crisis threw every
region of the UK back to the jobless levels of 1999, with 1.6 million people
claiming job seeker’s allowance.
It has been a hellish 18 months, no doubt about it. But out of
the ashes of Britain’s worst recession since World War II, a new
generation of businesses has started to flourish.
While our Hot 100 list of the UK’s fastest growing private
companies, based on compound annual growth rates over
the past four years, gives a nod to the final glory days
enjoyed by the construction, real estate and financial
companies, it also offers a glimpse of the kinds
of businesses that will shape Britain’s “new economy”.
First, there’s the arrival of environmental and
alternative-energy firms in this year’s list, proving that
REAL BUSINESS 2010
40
Goldtrail Travel
“The financial
crisis threw
every region of
the UK back to
the jobless levels
of 1999”
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK saving the planet can also be
profitable. Take Bristol-based Hot 100
veteran Wind Prospect Group (33),
for example. Founded by Euan
Cameron and Colin Palmer in 1997, this
£14m-turnover business now employs
200 people and has constructed
nearly 100 wind farms, producing a
total 1.75GW of wind energy. It is also
making waves (or rather wind)
overseas, developing one of the first
large-scale offshore wind farms in
Asia alongside utility firm CLP.
“We’re going to be confronted
with a huge power gap over the next
decade, as coal supplies dwindle and
the number of operating nuclear
power plants declines,” says Peter
Brooks, a managing director in
private-equity firm LDC, one of the
sponsors of our Hot 100. “Combine
that with the current political
agenda and climate change, and
you have a very real demand for
alternative-energy firms.”
Bactec International (85) is
another example of a specialist
environmental firm – but with a twist.
The logo on the side of its Rochester
office is the first clue that this is no
ordinary firm. What sort of company
24
Yip Shing
350
laotians are
employed by
bomb-disposer
bactec as part
of an ongoing
campaign to
de-mine the
battlegrounds
of the civil war
has a falling bomb with red fins as its
symbol? Answer: the world’s leading
landmine and unexploded bomb
disposer. Since 1991, Bactec has made
safe more than half a million devices.
And there is no shortage of work.
Mines last for decades. In Laos,
Bactec employs 350 Laotians in an
ongoing campaign to de-mine the
battlegrounds of the civil war.
More recently the company,
which is headed by chief executive
Guy Lucas, won a contract in the
Falklands to rid the islands of several
thousand devices planted by the
Argentinian forces around Port
Stanley and Goose Green during
the 1982 conflict.
The revolution begins
Genuinely new technology
businesses also feature
strongly in this year’s Hot
100. London-based
powerPerfector (21) was
set up by Angus Robertson
in 2001, importing patented,
energy-saving equipment
from Japan. Its units allow
electrical equipment to work
at its optimal voltage, maximising
energy efficiency. In the nine years
since Tesco became powerPerfector’s
first customer, several hundred other
organisations, including Sainsbury’s,
Hilton Hotels, Ofcom and the NHS
have installed the technology, cutting
their electricity bills and emissions by
an average of 13 per cent, according
to the company.
Landale (49), run by Lilly and
Yossi Meshulam, has also developed
innovative technology, allowing it
to recover precious metals from all
forms of waste such as scrap, crowns,
dental alloys, grindings, polishing
sweeps, floor sweeps, extractor bags
and carpets.
And then, of course, there are
the Hot 100 online pioneers.
While high-street stalwarts such
as Borders, Woolworths and MFI
were obliterated by the recession,
companies such as Thomsons Online
Benefits (87), online IT supplier
Probrand (76) and Sean King’s
property specialist Movewithus
(72) have flourished.
Fashion store Net-a-Porter (64),
founded by Natalie Massenet in 2000
during the last few months of the
original dotcom bubble, is one of the
biggest online success stories of the
Hot 100. It first appeared in our list in
2007 and has cropped up every year
since (see chart 5, page 9).
With sales of £81.5m, up from
£21.3m in 2006, and pre-tax profits
of £10m, here is an online company
that delivers healthy sales and
fantastic margins – without the
expensive overheads of a bricksand-mortar store.
Small wonder Net-a-Porter was
fully acquired by Richemont, the
Swiss watch and jewellery group that
owns Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and
Montblanc, in April. The deal will give
Richemont the channel to sell its own
brands on the site that attracts
25
new products have
been launched by troy foods
in the past 18 months alone.
how’s that for innovative?
around two million women a
month. Net-a-Porter was valued at
£350m, allowing Massenet to pocket
£50m for her remaining shares
and confirming her status as one
of the nation’s finest ever dotcom
entrepreneurs: “As far as we can tell,
there is no ceiling to what people will
spend online,” says Massenet. “There
must be one, but we haven’t found it.”
Keeping it in the family
From digital pioneers, we move to
family firms. Next to the fledgling
online companies on our Hot 100 list,
these companies are comparative
dinosaurs – but with no signs of
becoming extinct. Many have been
around for generations, surviving
countless economic blows by
constantly tweaking and updating
their business models. Whoever said
you can’t teach old dogs new
tricks was wrong.
No other company
shows this better
than Bibby Line
Group (75). This
family firm,
founded 200 years
ago in Liverpool, is
the oldest business in
this year’s Hot 100. Now
run by the sixthgeneration Sir Michael Bibby, it’s
also the biggest (see chart 3,
opposite), with a whopping £1.03bn
in annual sales.
Bibby tends to be viewed as
a shipping company, with vessels
in every sector from liquefied
petroleum gas and chemical tankers
to dry-bulk and containers. But, after
a difficult spell in the eighties,
Sir Michael’s father (Sir Derek)
diversified, creating a complex
conglomerate ranging from subsea
construction and private equity to
cash-flow services and warehousing
(Bibby is one of the UK’s largest
logistics firms). In 2007, the
company took another bold step,
buying a 51 per cent controlling
stake in convenience store chain
Costcutter. And last year, Bibby
attempted to take over Nisa-Today’s
supermarket buying group, but the
offer was rejected.
Sir Michael joined the family firm
in 1992 as financial director, before
rising to the top job in 2000. Oxfordeducated, with an estimated personal
fortune of £133m, he is regarded
as one of the most energetic bosses
in the company’s history. Some
of his decisions, such as the
move into woodland
burials, have baffled
some financial
commentators who
query the ability of
the group to operate
such a wide range
of businesses, but
the company’s
astonishing growth
(it has grown an average 53
per cent every year since 2006)
has silenced the critics.
Leeds-based Troy Foods, at
number three in our list, is another
example of a dynamic family firm.
It started life in the thirties as a fruit
and vegetable wholesaler, became
a potato-processor in the early
seventies, then, a few years later,
UK t
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REAL BUSINESS 2010
01: Sector breakdown
Sector
No. of
companies
Real estate & construction
Business services
IT & telecoms
Food & drink
Transport & logistics
Financial services
Retail
Environmental
Health & public services
Engineering & manufacturing
Leisure & entertainment
20
14
13
11
10
8
6
5
5
5
3
Total
100
02: regional breakdown
No. of companies
London
North
South-east
East
Wales and west
Midlands
South
Scotland
33
18
13
11
9
6
6
4
Total
100
turned its hand to supplying
ingredients for ready-meals. Today,
its customers range from national
brewery chains to blue-chip
manufacturers, who use Troy’s
products in everything from pizza
toppings to samosas. The company,
which pulled in sales of £21m last
year, claims to have introduced 25
new products in the past 18 months
alone and says it has a “bank” of
85 recipes in various stages of trial.
How’s that for innovative?
“I’m not surprised by the number
of family businesses in this year’s
list,” comments Guy Rigby, director
and head of entrepreneurs at
accounting firm Smith & Williamson,
our Hot 100 co-sponsor. “Family
firms aren’t get-rich-quick
merchants. They have a long-term
vision for their business and a stable
management structure, which
makes them well placed to battle
through any downturns.”
LDC’s Brooks: “Family firms take
a different approach to business.
They’re not about immediate
profitability, they’re about
longevity. They keep the family
silver safe by continually investing
in new products and markets, and
making sure they’re competitive.
And if they’ve been doing that for
05: hot 100 veterans
Company
Rank 2008
Elite Telecom
ES Group
Goldtrail Travel
Lawrence Group
Maria Mallaband
Net-a-Porter
Seetec
61
62
58
Rank 2009
Rank 2010
5
4
39
33
34
38
13
9
8
40
38
60
64
16
03: Biggest firms
Company
75
39
53
58
19
Bibby Line Group
LN Metals
B&M Retail
JVM Equipment
Motor Fuel
Latest sales
(£000)
1,034,093
298,764
255,922
176,618
121,905
63
Thunderhead
04: most profitable
Company
Latest sales
(£000)
81
Boston Air
79
75
58
94
2
Carisbrooke Shipping
Bibby Line Group
JVM Equipment
AJ Bell
Can Holdings
37,586
22,972
19,078
16,420
15,878
100 years, you can bet they’ll be
doing it for the next 100 years.”
Public profit
Companies with lucrative publicsector contracts in place are also
enjoying strong growth. The UK
government might be racking
up enormous doubt – but it’s one
customer that will never go bust
(fingers crossed). Essex-based
Seetec (16), set up by Peter Cooper
in 1984, is one of the country’s
largest providers of governmentfunded welfare to work and skills
training programmes – and
comfortably made it into our
top 20 for the second year running.
Probrand (76) also works with the
public sector. Government
departments have a notoriously
poor record at purchasing IT, so
Probrand has created an online
buying portal, The IT Index, where
they can log on and buy more than
125,000 products (at rock-bottom
prices) from more than 1,600
vendors in just a few clicks. Turnover
has rocketed from £14.9m to £52.7m
over the past four years.
“The sheer diversity of the
companies in this year’s list proves
it doesn’t matter whether you run
care homes for the elderly, a chain
Russia
is the richest country in the world. and despite
what the press says, it’s easy to do business there
of restaurants or recruitment firms,
or whether you’re based in Inverness
or the Isle of Wight [see chart 2], you
can do well if you have a clear
strategy and a strong management
team behind you,” comments Rigby
of Smith & Williamson.
Our Hot 100 entrepreneurs aren’t
fazed by economic turmoil. When
the chips are down, they simply shed
their old “skins” and adapt.
Oldham-based electrical
contractor Interface Contracts
(65) knows a thing or two about
breathing new life into a dwindling
business. The firm, set up by David
Taylor, Paul Mullender and David
Allan in 1992, specialised in servicing
ship-to-shore cranes in UK ports.
When Chinese imports started
undercutting the market and
demand plummeted, the trio moved
into an entirely new sector: water
utilities. “What can I say? It worked
out brilliantly,” says Taylor. “The
niche just grew and grew.” When
strict new quality rules were
introduced, Interface found the
established competition couldn’t
cope. Work poured in. Taylor
expects the company’s meteoric
growth to continue and predicts
turnover will jump from £5.3m to
£15m in the next five years.
Taylor’s not the only upbeat
business owner in this year’s list. As
Britain slowly starts to crawl out of
the longest and deepest recession
since the war, there’s a definite note
of optimism in the air. When we
interviewed this year’s Hot 100 stars,
55 per cent told us they’d increased
their sales projections (only 15 per
cent had cut them). More than half of
our entrepreneurs had upped their
profit projections.
10 REAL BUSINESS 2010
Beyond Britain
So where will future opportunities
come from? Our Hot 100
entrepreneurs are looking beyond
the UK domestic market, with six in
ten firms telling us that they are
expanding overseas, hinting that the
country’s biggest chance of growth
will lie abroad.
Grant Brummer, co-founder of
London-based IT Skillfinder (55),
tells us he’s considering setting up
an office in Europe; architectural
firm Austin-Smith:Lord (57) is about
to launch in Abu Dhabi; and
Thomsons Online Benefits (87) is
celebrating its tenth anniversary by
opening a US and Asian office. Aidan
Potter, director of architectural firm
John McAslan and Partners (89),
openly admits that overseas trade
(it has projects in Moscow, St
Petersburg, Doha, Italy, India and
Six
in ten HOT 100
COMPANIES
are LOOKING
BEYOND THE
UK DOMESTIC
MARKET, HINTING
THAT BRITAIN’S
biggest chance
of growth
will lie abroad
China) saved the company from
the jaws of the credit crunch.
David Attwood, who founded
the fastest growing private company
in the country (see our interview on
pages 14-17), International Plywood,
tells us he, too, is aiming
to grow market share abroad. “The
market is so much bigger in Europe,
there are so many more potential
customers,” says the 61-year-old
chairman. “Ten per cent of our
business will be from Europe this
year, against only six per cent two
years ago.” He’s been sourcing
timber from Asia for decades.
Sussex-based JVM Equipment
(58), which sells construction,
earthmoving and lifting machinery,
is focusing on the Russian market.
“Russia is the richest country in the
world. And, despite what the press
says, it is easy to do business there,”
says founder Max Skillman. The
company has trade centres and
service depots in all of the biggest
cities in Russia, plus a regional office
in Uzbekistan. And its network
continues to spread.
As Bruno Jouan, co-owner of
£37m-turnover manufacturing firm
VTL Group (67) puts it: “You have to
go where your customers are. For us,
that means having a global
presence. It’s not a deliberate
strategy – it would be more true to
say that we simply have no choice!”
“There’s been a 30 per cent
depreciation of the pound against the
euro – and that’s given entrepreneurs
a real opportunity to make good
margins in overseas markets,” says
LDC’s Brooks.
So what will hold these
entrepreneurs back from global
domination? Unsurprisingly, the
answer is cash. When surveyed,
two-thirds (67 per cent) of
our Hot 100 champions
said their businesses
could grow even faster,
either acquisitively
or organically, if
they had access to
further funding.
Jens Grede, coowner of advertising
agency Saturday (45), says
he’s bought up three companies
– and would have added to the list
had recession not hit and banks
stopped lending. “I’m praying for
that to change,” he sighs.
David Morgan of Morgan Law
Recruitment (83) admits he has
deliberately shunned the banks: “We
decided, from day one, not to borrow
any money. The business is all selffinanced, even though we knew that
might mean we would grow a little
slower at first. This ownership
structure means decisions come
down to us, not investors or banks,
and we’ve been able to mould the
business the way we wanted.”
Dissatisfaction with the banks
runs deep. More than four in ten of
this year’s Hot 100 companies told
us they’d considered changing
banks to improve their banking
covenants and terms.
The Bank of England’s latest
Trends in Lending report shows net
lending to UK businesses fell by
£3.2bn in Q1 2010. Gross lending to
businesses has fallen by 38.8 per cent
over the last year from £43.3bn in Q1
2009 to just £26.5bn in Q1 2010. Banks
haven’t met their targets – but this
is a complex area. Debates rage as to
whether it’s down to a lack of demand
from risk-averse SMEs; the price
of borrowing; businesses looking
to wean themselves off overdraft
dependence; or banks simply refusing
to support small businesses.
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the hot 100
methodology
The Real Business Hot 100, in
association with LDC and Smith
& Williamson, is a ranking of
the fastest-growing private
companies in the UK, using
accounts filed at Companies
House up to March 15, 2010. It
is based on compound annual
growth rates measured over a
four-year period – the single rate
at which the starting value would
have to grow each year to reach
the final value. To qualify, the
latest accounts needed to show
sales of more than £5m and have
profits of more than £50,000. All
profits referred to in this article are
based on pre-tax profits. Accounts
had to be filed in the past two
years and all companies needed to
be actively trading. No company
was included if Jordans could not
supply a credit rating. Subsidiary
companies were not allowed.
Chancellor Alistair Darling has made
noises about a lending watchdog,
but empty promises – and increasing
red tape – have made the Labour
Party unpopular. When we quizzed
our Hot 100 entrepreneurs about
their biggest areas of concern
regarding the economy, answers
ranged from “the 50 per cent tax
rate for higher earners” and “pension
rules” to “government deficit”. A
huge 75 per cent of respondents
agreed that a change of government
would benefit their business.
“From VAT to NI contributions, the
government’s continual tax changes
have created real uncertainty for
entrepreneurs. And they’re fed up
with it,” says Brooks of LDC. “To make
proper investment decisions and
growth plans, business owners need
a government that sets a strategy
and sticks to its guns, simple as that.”
Whatever the outcome of the
general election, or even if we face the
nightmare of a double-dip recession
as some analysts predict, it’s not
going to put this bunch off building –
and growing – sustainable enterprises.
John Cotterell of London-based
IT services firm Endava (23) already
employs more than 600 people in
the UK, the US, Romania and
Moldova, but tells us he’s hell bent
on growing his business to 2,000
people. Brian Pursey of accountancy
and debt-collection business Oriel
(32) admits that although the
recession has made life tough, he’s
simply using it as an opportunity to
prepare for the next boom.
The courage and vision of this
year’s Hot 100 entrepreneurs is
summed up nicely in the words of
Ian Walker, managing director of Isle
of Wight bulk shipper Carisbrooke
(79), the most profitable company
in our 2010 list: “We’ve been around
for years. For us, this downturn is
merely a raincheck.”
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 11
International Plywood
Can Holdings
Troy Foods
Lee Longlands
Writtle
Estrella Group
Rimex Metals
ES Group
Elite Telecoms
Amicable Building Assistance
Robore
Afonwen Laundry
Dunns (Long Sutton)
Brydol
Barworks
Seetec
mytxt.co.uk
Willerby Landscapes
Motor Fuel
Blevins Franks Financial Management
powerPerfector
Clifton Asset Management
Endava
Yip Shing
Banner Chemicals
Balhousie Care
C Brown Steel
Pipetech Design & Construction
DCD Business Media
Gardenfoods
GSS Support Services
Oriel
Wind Prospect Group
S’porter
Seafood Holdings
Connect Communications
Buddha Bar
Lawrence Group
LN Metals
Goldtrail Travel
The Premier Group
Anglo European
Roselands Investments
Bordeaux Index
Saturday
Zaha Hadid
Triton Construction
MPI Holdings
Landale
Earl of Plymouth Estates
Investigo
Intelliflo
B&M Retail
Affirmative Finance
IT Skillfinder
Toppesfield
Austin-Smith:Lord
JVM Equipment
T.E.C Building Services
Maria Mallaband Care Group
Manpower Direct
Excelian
Thunderhead
Net-a-Porter
Interface Contracts
Sun Contractors
VTL Group
Heartwood Wealth
Templeton Recruitment
H&M Security Services
Mardi Foods
Movewithus
Exponential-e
RMJM
Bibby Line Group
Probrand
K & G Restaurants
Entanet
Carisbrooke Shipping
Draycott Ward
Boston Air
Albourne Partners
Morgan Law Recruitment
Provanis
Bactec International
Radian
Thomsons Online Benefits
sq-m2
John McAslan and Partners
Beasons
Hill Dickinson
Nationwide Maintenance
Risktec Solutions
AJ Bell
Farr Vintners
Ian Mosey
D&P Data Systems
Spedition Services
Project Development International
Mainstay Group
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100
Facilities manager
Project management for oil and gas industry
Transport and logistics
Software retailer
Animal feed retailer and pig farmer
Wine merchant
Pensions provider
Risk management
Property services
Law firm
Construction and refurbishment
Architectural firm
Interior designer
Employee benefits and HR outsourcing
Social housing
Landmine and bomb disposer
Recruitment
Recruitment for public sector
Hedge fund research specialist
Recruitment for airline industry
Re-construction of damaged homes
Bulk shipper
IT products and services
McDonald’s franchisee
IT kit retailer
Logistics, finance and shipping
Architectural firm
Broadband networks
Property specialist
McDonald’s franchisee
Security
IT recruitment
Wealth management
Makes components for automotive industry
Property maintenance
Electrical contractor
Retail sale of clothing
Software provider
IT consultancy
Security
Care homes
Builders
Retailer of construction equipment
Architectural firm
Tarmacing of highways
IT recruitment
Short-term finance providers
Retailer of branded products
IT services
Recruitment
Farming and fresh food retailer
Precious metal recovery
Wholesalers of frozen fish and rubber
Construction company
Architectural firm
Advertising
Wine merchant
Tax specialist
Aircraft charter
Supplier of fuel-storage equipment
Travel agent
Metals trader
Jewellery retailer
Asian-themed bars and hotels
Telecommunications
Seafood wholesaler
Sport and fashion wear
Alternative electricity
Payroll and debt collection
Cleaning and waste management
Food wholesaler
Publisher of journals and periodicals
Mechanical and electrical services
Steel distributor
Care homes
Chemical supplier and distributor
Chinese food wholesaler
IT services
Specialist finance provider
Energy-saving equipment retailer
Tax and wealth-management specialist
Petrol station operator
Landscaping
Telecommunications
Recruitment and training
Restaurants and bars
Joinery and shopfitting specialist
Agricultural company
Washing and dry cleaning
Diamond and concrete cutter
Property maintenance and repairs
Telecommunications
Transport and outdoor staging
Metals manufacturer
Engineering
Investment and support services for media sector
Furniture retailer
Fruit and vegetable processor
Engineering, inspection and maintenance
Wood wholesaler
What they do
Worcester
Aberdeen
Surrey
Manchester
York
London
Manchester
Warrington
Surrey
Liverpool
London
London
London
London
Eastleigh
Rochester
Romsey
London
London
Yorkshire
Bath
Isle of Wight
Telford
Essex
Birmingham
Liverpool
Edinburgh
London
St Ives
Ipswich
London
London
Tunbridge Wells
Huddersfield
London
Oldham
London
Elstree
London
Essex
Leeds
Manchester
West Sussex
Manchester
Ipswich
London
Manchester
Blackpool
Surrey
London
Hereford
Essex
Brighton
Yorkshire
London
London
London
Kent
Lincolnshire
Hemel Hempstead
Surrey
London
London
London
London
London
Gloucester
Bristol
Cheltenham
Plymouth
London
London
Essex
Dudley
Forfar
Cheshire
Gloucester
London
Bristol
London
London
London
Kent
London
Essex
London
Hampshire
Lincolnshire
Gwynedd
Surrey
Surrey
Lancashire
London
Enfield
Stourbridge
Essex
Birmingham
Leeds
Aberdeen
Gloucester
Headquarters
Notes: All figures were taken from Companies House records on March 15, 2010. The latest available figures are referred to as “2009” numbers, and typically refer
to the 08/09 tax year, but in some cases may refer to accounts for 07/08. The corresponding figures for “2006” may therefore refer to accounts for 04/05.
Company name
Rank
David Clark
Nigell Danhash
Yazmin Fazal and Jens Rastorp
Philip Hodari
Ian Mosey
Stephen Browett
Andy Bell
Alan Hoy
Chris Sykes
Peter Jackson
Clive Beard
John McAslan
Stephen Hart
Michael Whitfield
Lindsay Todd
Guy Lucas
Neale Provan
David Morgan and Simon Law
Simon Ruddick
Mark Parkes
Chris McKenty
Ian Walker
Jason Tsai
Kurt Jansen
Peter Robbins
Sir Michael Bibby
Alexander Morrison
Lee Wade
Sean King
Mark Richards
Ian Henderson
Nadeem Ahmad
Simon Lough
Bruno Jouan
Yaser Salman
David Taylor
Natalie Massenet
Glen Manchester
Adrian Marshall and Stephen Grant
Sharjeel and Kashif Bhatti
Philip Burgan
Terry Connor
Max Skillman
Iain Wylie
Gale and Matthew Pryor, David Last
Grant Brummer and Darren Hall
Eugene Esterkin
Simon and Bobby Arora
Nick Eatock
Simon Smith and Scott Beckson
Viscount Windsor
Lilly and Yossi Meshulam
Mark and Rodney Pratt
Michael Parkinson
Zaha Hadid
Jens Grede and Erik Torstensson
Gary Boom
Brian McGillivray
Mark Everts
Ken Owen
Kadir Aydin
Iain Paterson
Lawrence Collins
Raymond Visan
Andy Thomas
Toby Baxendale
George Davies
Euan Cameron
Brian Pursey
John Goodchild
Ali Caktu
Daniel Scarbrough
Juan Garcia
Graham Brown
Anthony Banks
Mordechai Kessler
Chi Hung Yip
John Cotterell
Neil Greenaway
Angus Robertson
David Simmonds Franks and William Blevins
Simlesh Ramchaddas Sejpal and Sharad Mohanlal Raja
Peter Smith
Chris and Corinne Hunter
Peter Cooper
Patrick Franzen
Michael Bryden
Stephen Russell
Michael Woolfenden
Andrew Dawson
Reza Mofidi
Matt Newing
Tim Norman
Keith Childs
Steve Hayes
Robert Essex
Rob Lee
Mike Sprockley
Mike Freeman
David Attwood
The boss
THE HOT 100 LIST 2010
12,263
5,951
32,418
78,817
20,511
120,542
38,491
13,417
33,992
82,095
5,635
10,211
14,680
12,205
96,552
14,398
13,140
24,239
25,410
15,678
6,603
66,805
24,029
5,406
52,674
1,034,093
99,877
14,973
43,314
13,015
9,912
9,625
11,314
37,349
7,657
5,301
81,546
15,859
13,078
7,399
31,834
7,690
176,618
12,293
10,549
7,984
9,013
255,922
5,187
28,840
7,210
5,393
9,632
10,714
26,231
7,183
56,716
26,715
9,710
10,144
59,709
298,764
87,620
5,227
7,680
81,800
31,682
14,345
117,049
7,442
5,077
5,123
7,115
51,326
12,732
76,208
5,073
20,433
5,015
11,557
5,379
121,905
9,059
7,889
21,204
6,372
5,595
15,868
13,631
13,824
7,940
14,612
36,324
23,595
46,932
27,881
16,402
20,985
62,609
72,311
Sales 2009*
(£000)
3,952
1,913
10,410
25,302
6,566
38,429
12,248
4,253
10,695
25,765
1,768
3,187
4,576
3,794
29,580
4,362
3,976
7,316
7,650
4,642
1,951
19,702
6,899
1,539
14,895
291,095
28,013
4,189
11,951
3,576
2,703
2,573
3,015
9,946
2,037
1,396
21,258
4,127
3,363
1,876
7,942
1,901
43,158
2,961
2,504
1,867
2,075
58,604
1,167
6,478
1,614
1,195
2,122
2,333
5,589
1,520
11,915
5,606
2,022
2,110
12,335
60,044
17,089
1,016
1,467
15,477
5,876
2,533
20,511
1,263
862
860
1,187
8,143
2,014
11,859
721
2,743
672
1,507
669
14,173
998
627
1,636
489
358
851
712
703
314
462
1,091
458
874
516
202
230
561
612
Sales 2006*
(£000)
2,154
549
1,351
3,686
1,074
14,244
16,420
2,632
440
10,529
222
280
632
1,069
4,663
1,588
990
644
4,232
688
335
37,586
636
161
1,047
22,972
7,900
494
1,217
228
1,648
477
1,815
2,137
244
866
10,064
2,850
679
246
444
969
19,078
2,354
639
300
3,754
12,999
1,573
2,574
360
139
443
424
5,039
212
1,848
2,145
440
702
247
2,768
1,506
2,076
187
833
2,892
1,487
250
450
262
478
502
602
1,898
1,536
251
960
97
2,977
141
75
951
1,198
2,112
434
54
2,474
631
722
776
519
2,002
895
2,968
297
236
512
15,878
555
Pre-tax profits (£000)
46
46
46
46
46
46
47
47
47
47
47
47
48
48
48
49
49
49
49
50
50
50
52
52
52
53
53
53
54
54
54
55
55
55
56
56
57
57
57
58
59
59
60
61
62
62
63
64
64
65
65
65
66
66
67
68
68
68
69
69
69
71
72
73
74
74
75
78
79
81
81
81
82
85
85
86
92
95
95
97
100
105
109
133
135
135
150
165
168
170
194
216
222
272
277
278
333
350
382
390
Annual
growth (%)
Hot100.realbusiness.co.uk
International Plywood
Interview: Jason Hesse
Photography: Richard Gleed
Topping our Hot 100
list in 2010, this
family-owned timber
firm is built on years
of sturdy experience
and nerves of
steel. Raking in sales
of £72.3m, meet
International Plywood,
the UK’s fastestgrowing company.
From the deep forests of Asia,
South America and Africa, through
countless middlemen and port
authorities, to the skirting boards,
roofs and shelving units of the
developed (and developing) world,
few industries are as global as timber.
At the heart of this fabulously
complex supply chain is a Gloucesterbased family business run by a former
carpenter – this year’s fastest growing
UK business, posting average growth
rates of 391 per cent over the past four
years. With sales set to blast through
the £100m barrier, pre-tax profits
between £500,000 and £3m, a
robust balance sheet and suppliers
in all corners of the world, this is a
traditional business delivering
thoroughly modern results.
International Plywood was
founded by former wood-cutting
machinist David Attwood 26 years
ago. Today, the business is largely
run by his two sons – Ian is the MD,
Robert runs logistics. A third of the
60-odd staff have been with the
firm for close to 30 years.
“I am so proud of what my
boys are doing with the company,”
Attwood smiles. “We’ve always been
focused on being one step ahead of
the competition, and they’ve really
taken that philosophy on-board.”
Timber through and through
It’s obvious that Attwood, 61,
knows what he’s talking about,
having been involved in his industry
for more than 40 years.
14 REAL BUSINESS 2010
40,000
Tonnes of wood
is imported by
International
Plywood every
month – enough to
fill Wembley Stadium
He likens himself to today’s young
computer nerds who’ve grown up
with developments in the IT industry.
“I’ve been brought up with the
products and have seen them evolve.
I know the panel products industry
inside out.”
Raised in the West Country, he left
school to serve an apprenticeship as
a wood machinist before becoming a
manager at a joinery firm. “Aged 21, it
was an impressive position,” he recalls.
It also gave Attwood his first
taste of how important the supply
chain can be: “I was tasked with
arranging purchasing contracts
for materials and gained an awful lot
of experience in running a factory.”
Five years later, Attwood became
head of sales at a timber merchant, a
period he remembers vividly. “It was
a time when, in the UK, there was a
massive under-stocking situation.
You couldn’t buy cement or get hold
of plasterboard – the country was just
booming. It was a great opportunity
to do well in the business.”
But it was only when, a few
years later in 1981, he bought timber
merchant William Sharvatt and
started International Plywood that
Attwood came into his own.
Staying ahead of the pack
International Plywood’s success
certainly wasn’t guaranteed to start
with, and Attwood had to combat
the entrenched industry corruption
– and square off against a lot of the
big players – in order to get ahead.
In the eighties and nineties,
Europe sourced all of its plywood
from Indonesia, where the dictator
Suharto and his henchmen had a
monopoly on trade and timber
exports, controlling three-quarters
of the worldwide plywood market.
“They really controlled the whole
industry – they would only supply to
the ‘Big Six’ operators, who had to buy
16 REAL BUSINESS 2010
supplier. And again, International
Plywood was there first, innovating
before the rest.
Running a tight ship
david attwood on...
Suppliers:
“I would far rather look after my supplier than my customer. You can find
customers any time – you just have to offer them a competitive price and
good service, and they’ll come. Suppliers, on the other hand, need a little
bit more attention. They’re looking for longer-term contracts and people
they can rely on.”
Sustainable wood:
“The notion that certified sustainable wood is of a better quality is a
total myth – in fact, it’s often the opposite. It just means that there’s a
better chance we’ll all still be enjoying wood products in 100 years’ time.”
Bringing down the competition:
“Shit happens, doesn’t it? We’re all gentlemen in the industry, but it’s
just as competitively aggressive as anything else. If someone is going
to drown, shove a hose in his mouth.”
from this person, ship it on that
vessel, deliver it using that contractor.
They were getting kickbacks from
the whole chain. It was a cartel and
it wasn’t helping the industry move
forward,” he explains.
But Attwood’s knack for spotting
industry changes early on kicked in,
and International Plywood adapted
its buying channels to get ahead.
As none of the smaller
importers – including International
Plywood – had anywhere to go,
Attwood approached Malaysian
wood suppliers in order to “stick
two fingers up to the Indonesians”.
By working with the Malaysians,
the company entirely bypassed the
established plywood supply chain, a
move it performed again in later years
when it moved its suppliers to China.
Sourcing its products from
Malaysia meant that International
Plywood was able to offer plywood
at more competitive levels than
the established big six players,
and make its name in the industry.
“It just snowballed, and a lot of the
businesses that had been our
massive competitors fell by the
wayside. We were elevated from
Division One to the Premier Division
almost overnight.”
Today, International Plywood
sources the majority of its plywood
from Chinese suppliers. The products
are more sustainable – as they’re
from poplar trees, which grow
incredibly quickly – and cheaper.
In fact, China has become the
standard source for 75 per cent of the
trade, moving from the world’s largest
importer and consumer of forest
products to being the world’s largest
Margins are tight in the timber
business – typically five per cent
– but International Plywood has built
its success on always finding the
keenest route to market, consistently
achieving margins over ten per cent.
“What are the three things you
need to run a successful plywood
importing business?” poses Attwood.
“Logistics, logistics, logistics.”
He says it’s about getting the best
rate possible for a bulk carrier and
filling it to the top with plywood,
paying the lowest possible freight
rate, bringing it to a port that is cheap
to operate in, discharging the
product efficiently and then
delivering it to customers with as
little add-on costs as possible.
“The route to market for our
product has to be the most costeffective,” he says. “While the cost of
the raw material is fairly relevant, it’s
actually the cost of shipping it to the
UK and its distribution that is more
relevant to our profitability.”
Attwood describes his business
strategy over the past 20 years as “an
expansion of frugality”. Even today,
when supplying continental European
customers, he’ll drive the hardest
bargain, knowing that if their trucks
leave the UK empty of his products,
every mile will lose them money.
Nailing the competition
This focus on costs, says Attwood, has
45%
always enabled International Plywood
to thrive while industry rivals have
gone to the wall. Today, he claims that
his business holds 40 to 50 per cent
of the UK plywood importing market.
The company’s economies of
scale have played a huge part in
its success. So much so, that many
smaller importers have given up on
trying to compete, and buy their
plywood directly from Attwood.
“Smaller importers have realised
that they’re just pissing in the bloody
wind – they just can’t compete by
doing what they’re doing, so they
have no alternative but to come to
us. If someone is offering the same
product as you but at a cheaper
price, what are you going to do?”
In addition to International
Plywood’s comparative advantages,
it has benefited from competitors’
failures, allowing the company to
pick up many new customers.
“International Plywood still
has some fairly strong competitors
– both in terms of importing and
distribution – but there has been
some contraction in recent years,
helping push them up the league
table,” says Mike Jeffries, editor
of the Timber Trades Journal, the
industry’s trade publication.
The recession test
International Plywood brings in
40,000 tonnes of products every
month (enough to fill Wembley
Stadium). These range from speciality
plywoods to mass-market MDF,
supplying builders and merchants
throughout the UK and Europe,
of the united
kingdom’s plywood market is
held by international Plywood
where the company is looking to
increase its market penetration.
But the past two years have not
been plain sailing. Deep recession,
the decimation of the construction
industry and huge volatility in the
currency markets have tested
Attwood and his sons to the limit.
“We had a fairly rocky period
during the first part of the economic
crisis,” Attwood admits. “We saw a
20 per cent drop in volume – a fairly
large drop – but there’s always a
natural catch-up that takes place. It’s
coming back now.”
International Plywood’s
extraordinary growth isn’t purely
organic, though – the company
acquired Panel Supplies in 2007 and
has also been dabbling in currency
swaps and hedging.
This has led the company’s
turnover to go “off the bloody
clock”, says Attwood, but he leaves
little doubt that it can be a risky
game. “You can make a fortune with
currency or you could lose a fortune
– it’s that simple. So far, it’s helped
our selling price and margins, but it
could happen in reverse, too.”
Years of experience and strong
nerves have seen the firm through.
Attwood knows that, while the
market for wooden carpet grips
may decline (the world increasingly
favours floor tiles), so new ones will
emerge – all white vans are now, for
example, lined with plywood. The
construction industry is also picking
up, with the Chartered Institute of
Purchasing & Supply in April
reporting growth in construction for
the first time since February 2008.
Attwood acknowledges that he
doesn’t always play safe: “From the
outside, some would say we’re
reckless.” But, in the world of wood,
this is a man of steel; a born risk
taker. “If you’re too conservative,
you just won’t make a real impact.”
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 17
2 Can Holdings
Aberdeen-based Can Holdings
provides engineering, inspection and
maintenance services to the oil and
gas, construction, civil engineering,
marine and structural maintenance
industries worldwide. Employing
120 staff, Can’s growth has been as
spectacular as some of the recent
leaps in oil prices, with turnover
jumping from £561,000 in 2006 to
£63m in 2009. Impressively, the group
has £6.3m in cash, and shareholders’
funds of more than £30m.
www.cangroup.net
3 Troy Foods
5 Writtle
This Benfleet-based firm provides
investment and support for creative
and media companies. Under
chairman Robert Essex, turnover has
jumped from just £516,000 in 2006
to £28m in 2009.
www.writtleholdings.co.uk
6 Estrella Group
This West Midlandsex s
based engineering
m
i
“R ls ha g
group specialises in
a
n
met facturi UK, an unusual mix of
u
manes in thestralia interiors and
aerospace. Its
u
ti
facili US, Aouth
chairman and 75
the and S ”
per cent owner of the
a
group is Steve Hayes,
Afric
Leeds-based
Troy Foods is a
family-owned
food-processing
company. Founded
in 1932 as fruit and
vegetable wholesalers, it
started processing potatoes
in the early seventies and, a few
years later, sold the wholesaling
business to concentrate on
processing vegetables to supply
ready-meal businesses. It has since
added prepared salads, coleslaw
and mayonnaise to its production
line. With 2009 sales of £21m and
a pre-tax profit of £512,000, owner
Mike Sprockley felt confident
enough to take his first dividend
for years – a healthy £300,000.
www.troyfoods.co.uk
4 Lee Longlands
Lee Longlands is a name well known
to the people of Britain’s “second
city”, Birmingham. For four
generations, the company has been
selling furniture to people all over
the Midlands. Established back in
1901, this £16.4m-turnover business
18 REAL BUSINESS 2010
is now run by the latest member
of the Lee dynasty, Rob Lee.
www.leelonglands.co.uk
while the FD and owner
of the remaining 25 per cent is
Steve Wain. The two Steves have seen
turnover and profits rise from
£874,000 in 2006 to £47m in 2009.
ww.estrellagroup.co.uk
7 Rimex Metals
Long-established Rimex Metals
Group has been producing surface
finishes on stainless steel and other
metals since 1959. The group, which
has manufacturing facilities in the
UK, the US, Australia and South
Africa, is controlled by Keith Childs,
who paid himself £315,281 (including
pension contributions) in 2008 and
received the lion’s share of the
dividend of £66,000.
www.rimexmetals.com
8 ES Group
For the second successive year, ES
Group features in the Hot 100 top
ten. You’ve probably spotted the
firm’s fleet of trucks crisscrossing
the UK, transporting bulky outdoor
stage equipment to music concerts.
Under the helm of Tim Norman and
his fellow directors, it made £2m on
sales of £36.3m last year.
www.esgroup.uk.com
for
pro hot full
ho files100
t
bu 100.r, visi
s
t
e
coiness al
.uk .
9 Elite Telecoms
Elite Telecoms is a Hot 100 veteran.
Based in Lancashire, the company
pulled in sales of £14.6m last year.
Founder Matt Newing, still in his
thirties, owns 66 per cent of the
shares. He paid himself a total
of £378,000 in 2009 (including
pension contributions).
www.elitetele.com
10 Amicable Building
Assistance
A property maintenance and repairs
company based in Tadworth, Surrey,
Amicable only has one director and
shareholder – Reza Mofidi. In the year
to August 2008, turnover was £7.9m
and the company made pre-tax
profits of £776,000. Mofidi only paid
himself £52,220 in 2008 but he also
took a dividend of £93,500.
www.amicablebuilding.co.uk
11 Robore
Surrey-based Robore is a diamond
and concrete cutting and sawing
company working predominantly
with the construction industry.
Established in 1986, it now employs
more than 140 people. The group has
£2m in cash in the bank, which leaves
the four directors (each of whom
owns 25 per cent of the company)
well placed to take advantage of any
upturn in the construction industry.
www.robore.com
YOU MAY HAVE
SPOTTED
THIS firm’S
TRUCKS
CROSSING THE
country,
TRANSPORTING
STAGE
EQUIPMENT
TO MUSIC
CONCERTS
Tim Norman, ES Group
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 19
12 Afonwen Laundry
This North Wales-based laundry
and linen-hire firm covers the
whole of Wales, the North-West
of England, the West Midlands and
South-West England, and has a
client list that includes Best Western,
Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn on its
books. In 2009, 258 staff were
employed – welcome news in an
area plagued by unemployment.
www.afonwenservices.com
13 Dunns (Long Sutton)
Dunns goes as far back as 1834 and is
now one of the major independently
owned UK seed companies,
specialising in bean and pea seeds.
As befits an agricultural firm, Dunns
is run on admirably conservative
business lines. In the year to July
2009, turnover reached £16m and
pre-tax profits were a more than
respectable £2.5m. Dunns has more
than £1m in cash in the bank.
www.dunns-ls.co.uk
14 Brydol
This Hampshire-based joinery
and shopfitting firm manufactures
everything from custom staircases
and bookcases to entertainment
centres and bars. Recent Brydol
projects include installing Early
Learning Centres in Mothercare,
new Schuh stores in Dublin and
Limerick, and MicroAnvika’s stunning new
store in Westfield –
London’s shopping
complex at
Shepherd’s Bush.
www.brydol.co.uk
15 Barworks
Barworks is a fast20 REAL BUSINESS 2010
expanding chain of bars and diners
with exotic names such as The
Slaughtered Lamb and The Black
Heart. Based in Hoxton in East
London, the company is the
brainchild of two Swedes, Anders
Akerlund and Patrick Franzen, and
Briton Mark Francis Baum. Last year,
Barworks made pre-tax profits of
£434,000 on sales of £6.4m.
www.barworks.com
16 Seetec
Seetec Business Technology Centre
comfortably made it into our Hot
100 top 20 again this year, despite
the recession. Founded in 1984,
this Essex-based recruitment and
training firm has become one of
the largest and most experienced
providers of government-funded
welfare to work and skills training
programmes. Last year, Seetec
pulled in £21.2m in sales and profits
of £2.1m. This enabled the company,
which is 56 per cent owned by
founder Peter Cooper, to pay total
dividends of £990,608. Ten per cent
of the company’s shares are owned
by an employee trust.
www.seetec.co.uk
17 mytxt.co.uk
In the year to January 2009, the
sole directors and shareholders of
London-based mytxt (husband-andwife team Chris and Corinne
Hunter from Batley in
Yorkshire) saw turnover
of the company rise
to £7.9m and pre-tax
profits to £1.2m. The
pair only paid
themselves a
measly £11,700 but
withdrew £708,750
each as dividends.
www.mytxt.co.uk
rks’ rs
o
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e
r
“Ba and dintic
barsave exoe The
h es lik ed
r
namlaughte ”
S amb
L
18 Willerby Landscapes
21 powerPerfector
Kent-based Willerby Landscapes
was founded in 1983 and specialises
in the installation and ongoing
maintenance of hard and softlandscape schemes. In 2009,
turnover hit £9.1m, with profits
of £951,000. The company paid
a dividend of £364,500 (and
£889,500 the previous year) – good
news not only for the directors, but
also for the employees whose trust
owns 20 per cent of the company.
www.willerby-landscapes.co.uk
powerPerfector is a new-generation
UK firm, helping to deal with the
challenges of environmental changes.
Started in 2001, powerPerfector sells
energy-saving equipment to clients
such as Tesco, the NHS, DECC and
Defra and claims to reduce electricity
consumption, energy costs and
carbon footprints by an average 13
per cent in one easy installation.
Georg
Turnover hit £11.6m last year.
e
www.powerperfector.com
19 Motor Fuel
This service station operator
recorded turnover of £122m last year
but, illustrating the poor margins in
the fuel business, only recorded a
pre-tax profit of £75,000. However,
this was after its two owners Simlesh
Ramchaddas Sejpal and Sharad
Mohanlal Raja had shared salary and
pension contributions of £870,000.
Now that there are signs that the
world economy is picking up, Motor
Fuel’s owners will be looking to
reduce last year’s hefty interest
charges of more than £900,000.
motorfuelgroupplc.com
20 Blevins Franks
Financial Management
Established in 1975, Blevins Franks
has grown into an eminent tax
and wealth-management provider,
specialising in advising expats.
Blevins Franks Financial
Management has two sister
companies: London-based Blevins
Franks Tax Advisory Services; and
Malta-based Blevins Franks Trustees.
The £5.4m-turnover company is
owned by David Simmonds Franks
and William Blevins.
www.blevinsfranks.com
took over the control and running of
the business. Cecil’s bedroom-based
business has blossomed into a
£51.3m-turnover operation.
www.cbrownsteels.co.uk
28 Pipetech Design
& Construction
No 34
S’Por
ter
22 Clifton Asset
Management
Based just outside Bristol, Clifton
has offered financial services to
businesses and individuals since 1986.
Specialising in business funding,
wealth management, exit strategies
and tax advice, the company made
£96,700 on sales of £5m and paid
a dividend of £66,000 last year.
www.cliftonasset.co.uk
23 Endava
London-based Endava is an ITservices company, employing more
than 600 people in the UK, the US,
Romania and Moldova. Founded in
2000, clients include UBS, Cable &
Wireless, ITV and Alexander Mann
Solutions. Chief executive John
Cotterell says his next challenge is to
grow the business to 2,000 people.
www.endava.com
24 Yip Shing
Based in Gloucester, Chinese food
company Yip Shing made pre-tax
profits of £251,000 on sales of £5.1m
last year. Total payment to directors
in 2009 was just £5,262 – although
they did allow themselves the luxury
of a dividend of £30,000.
Davi
es
25 Banner
Chemicals
Cheshire-based Banner Chemicals
Group consists of Samuel Banner &
Co, Prism Chemicals and MP Storage
and Blending, with activities ranging
from chemical distribution to the
processing, packaging and blending
of chemicals. Established back in
1850 by Samuel Banner (who is said
to have been the inventor of white
spirit), the £76.2m-turnover
company is controlled by Mordechai
(Motty) Kessler.
www.bannerchemicals.com
26 Balhousie Care
Balhousie Care has 20 residential
care homes dotted throughout
Scotland, caring for more than 700
residents and employing 725 staff
(making an impressive one-to-one
carer-to-patient ratio). Last year,
Balhousie brought in pre-tax profits
of £1.9m on sales of £12.7m.
www.balhousiecare.co.uk
27 C Brown Steel
This West Midlands-based steel
stockholder and distributor was
formed in 1946 by Cecil Brown, who
started selling steel from a small
bedroom in his house. In November
2005, the third generation of Browns
Started in 2001, Essex-based
Pipetech Design & Construction
covers everything from design,
mechanical and electrical services,
air conditioning and fabrication.
Ownership of the company is
divided equally between four
directors who split a dividend of
£178,000 during last year.
29 DCD Business Media
DCD Business Media organises
business conferences and produces
publications for the data centre
industry. DCD made £478,400 last
year on sales of £5.1m. This figure
looks a lot healthier when added to
the hefty salaries the directors paid
themselves – £1.1m between the
three of them.
www.datacenterdynamics.com
30 Gardenfoods
This North London-based wholesale
food distributor services more than
8,000 stores, supermarkets, cash
and carries and other businesses
– and is the largest wholesaler of
Polish and Eastern European foods
in the UK. Established in 2003,
the company has a 40,000 sq ft
warehouse in Edmonton, stocking
more than 1,400 items. In 2007,
Gardenfoods imported 15,000
tonnes of Polish produce into the
UK. The company recorded sales
of £5.1m last year under sole director
Ali Caktu.
www.gardenfoods.co.uk
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 21
67%
of seafood holdings
is owned by toby
baxendale, who
founded the company
in 1991, while
at university
Toby Baxendale, Seafood Holdings
36 Connect
Communications
Connect Communications works both
with telcos and directly with mid and
upper-tier multinationals, dealing in
systems integration and delivery
of VoIP. MD Andy Thomas sold his
former business to Connect and
came on board in 2003 with a 15 per
cent equity share. A reverse takeover
followed, which culminated in an MBO
in 2005. Since then, the company has
increased turnover to £7.7m.
www.connectcs.com
37 Buddha Bar
Raymond Visan opened his first
Buddha Bar in Paris in 1996. Since
then, their popularity has spread and
there are now Buddha Bars across
the world from Kiev to Cairo. Visan
has expanded his empire to include
Buddha hotels, a spa and smaller
Little Buddha Cafés. Turnover is
£5.2m, with pre-tax profits of £2.1m.
www.buddha-bar.com
31 GSS Support Services
Plymouth-based GSS Support
Services deals in cleaning and waste
management for the retail and
distribution sectors. Turnover hit
£7.4m last year, enabling the company
to pay a dividend of £51,300.
www.gss-supportservices.co.uk
32 Oriel
This is the tenth anniversary of
Cheltenham-based Oriel, which
provides back-office, payroll,
accountancy and debt-collection
22 REAL BUSINESS 2010
services for contractors working
in all industry sectors. Turnover
jumped from £20.5m in 2006 to
£117m in 2009.
www.orielgroup.co.uk
33 Wind
Prospect
Group
For the second year
running, alternative
energy company
Wind Prospect
Group features in our
Hot 100 list. The Bristol-
based firm works on wind-energy
projects in the UK and is the biggest
independent wind-engineering
consultancy in Ireland. Wind
Prospect Group owns 30 per
cent of a joint venture with
energy giant EDF to
develop onshore
wind farms in the UK.
www.wind
prospect.com
“Raymond
Visan opened
the first
Buddha Bar
in Paris
in 1996”
34 S’porter
Founded in 1995,
Gloucestershire-based
S’porter is the brainchild of George
Davies, the multimillionaire behind
Next and George at Asda. His
£31.7m-turnover sports fashion
business, wholly owned by Davies
and his family trusts, has agreements
in place with Premiership football
giants Liverpool and Arsenal. It also
handles Marks & Spencers’ Per Una
supply division, which accounts for
62 per cent of turnover.
www.sporter.co.uk
35 Seafood Holdings
Set up in 1991 by university student
for
pro hot full
ho files100
t
bu 100.r, visi
s
t
e
coiness al
.uk .
Toby Baxendale,
Seafood Holdings now
claims to be the largest
independent supplier of
fresh fish in the UK. Based in New
Covent Garden, the company pulled
in sales of £82m last year – and
Baxendale reckons the next set
of accounts will see turnover “just
south of £100m”. Baxendale owns
roughly two-thirds of the company;
the rest is owned by Risk Capital LLP
– where serial entrepreneur and
restaurant investor Luke Johnson
is a director.
www.seafoodholdings.co.uk
38 Lawrence
Group
Based in Hatton Garden,
London, this family-run
jewellers is no stranger
to the Hot 100. Run by
Lawrence Collins and his
wife, the firm sells jewellery, deals
in precious metals, and invests in
property. Turnover has shot up from
£17.1m to £87.6m in the past four years.
www.gerrardsonline.co.uk
39 LN Metals
The recession has been good to LN
Metals, a commodities trader, dealing
in lead, zinc, aluminium and minor
metals. Staff numbers have increased
from 14 in 2006 to 35, and the
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 23
company now has representation in
most major economies. LN Metals
raised additional capital in 2007 to
help it diversify into the minor metals
business. Turnover sits at £299m,
with profits at £2.8m.
www.lnmetals.com
40 Goldtrail Travel
Back in the Hot 100 in 2010 is Kadir
Aydin and the travel company he
founded eleven years ago, Goldtrail
Travel. The firm specialises in budget
holidays to Greece, but has recently
expanded into Turkey. Parity
between the pound and euro has
helped contribute to a surge in
turnover, up 69.2 per cent to £60m.
www.goldtrail.co.uk
41 The Premier Group
Whether it’s building the forecourt,
installing or dismantling the fuel
tanks, or maintaining the pumps,
Premier Group covers every petrolstation need. MD Ken Owen joined
the company in 1989 before buying
the business in 1994. Since then, he
has been on an acquisition spree,
with five key trading companies now
under one banner. A mix of organic
and acquisitional growth has seen
sales shoot up to £10.1m.
www.premiergroup.org.uk
42 Anglo European
Ninety per cent of turnover at Anglo
European reportedly comes from
airline charter, with the remainder
Tune
coming from the executive jet
market, which provides aircraft for
business groups and celebrities.
Under the direction of Mark
Everts, turnover has soared to
£9.7m, although this year looks
set to be tougher because of a
recession lag in Italy and other
European markets.
www.angloeuropean.com
43 Roselands
Investments
No 4a6did
Zaha H
Hadid
This family business, run
by Brian McGillivray,
Zaha
primarily helps
companies claim VAT
refunds. It has more than
5,000 clients across the
pharmaceuticals, IT, retail, telecoms,
insurance and banking sectors, and
was the first to offer the service back
in 1980. Sales stand at £26.7m with
pre-tax profit at £2.1m.
44 Bordeaux Index
Unimpressed by his treatment
as a customer, MD Gary Boom set up
his own wine merchants, Bordeaux
Index, with two partners. At his
£56.7m-turnover firm, every
customer has a relationship manager,
tuned into their clients’ likes and
dislikes – it has helped boost sales
to more than £1m a week. Other
innovations have included a wine
tourism business and a partnership
with wine buff Michael Schuster.
Pre-tax profit stands at £1.8m.
www.bordeauxindex.com
into the 2012
Olympics and you’ll see hadid’s
wave-shaped aquatics centre
24 REAL BUSINESS 2010
45 Saturday
Jens Grede and Erik
Torstensson left
Wallpaper in 2003 to set up
their own advertising agency.
Now with 100 clients under their
belt, including Kurt Geiger, H&M and
Monsoon, Saturday has acquired
three other companies and has
offices in London, Paris and LA, with
one more set to open in New York in
September. Turnover is £7.2m, and
on target to grow 30 per cent this
year. One thing not on the cards
is an exit plan. “I am 32. This is the
beginning of my career, not the end,”
says Grede.
www.saturday-london.com
46 Zaha Hadid
Tune into the 2012 Olympics and
you’ll see Zaha Hadid’s wave-shaped
Aquatics Centre. Hadid is the first
woman to win the prestigious
Pritzker Architecture Prize, dubbed
the Nobel Prize of architecture, and
her diverse portfolio includes the
National Museum of XXI Century
Arts (the Maxxi) in Rome, the
Guangzhou Opera House in China
and the set for The Pet Shop Boys
World Tour. Turnover at her practice
has risen to £26.2m, with pre-tax
profits of £5m.
www.zaha-hadid.com
47 Triton Construction
Michael Parkinson set up this
Yorkshire construction company
five years ago with equity and 30
employees from his previous
company. Clients include Next, Aldi
and British Oxygen, while 70 per
cent of work comes from the public
sector. Parkinson is bullish,
anticipating growth of around 50
per cent this financial year. “Our
forward-order book has £12m in it.
That’s more than we turned over
in total last year,” he says.
www.tritonconstruction.co.uk
48 MPI Holdings
This £9.6m-turnover, six-employee
firm trades in natural rubber and
frozen fish. Not the most obvious fit,
but “there are two partners in the
business – one started in one, and
one in the other,” says co-owner Mark
Pratt. Simple, then.
49 Landale
Whether you’re a dentist, jeweller,
or in the industrial sector, Landale
can recover precious metal from
your waste material. Based in London,
the company is run by Lilly and Yossi
Meshulam. Sales have grown to £5.4m.
www.landalemetals.co.uk
50 Earl of
Plymouth Estates
Founded in 1950 by Lord Plymouth,
the Earl of Plymouth Estates is a
family-owned group making the
most of its 8,000 acre Oakly Park
Estate, near Ludlow. Lord
Plymouth’s successor, Viscount
Windsor, and the family board run
a food centre selling fresh farm
produce, an estate café, and a
conference centre. The estate also
26 REAL BUSINESS 2010
hosts an arable farm and a sand and
gravel pit. Sales stand at £7.2m.
www.earlofplymouthestates.co.uk
51 Investigo
Founders Scott Beckson and Simon
Smith set up Investigo in 2003. The
firm places finance, strategy and
consulting professionals on salaries
up to £250,000 and was one of the
lead providers on the Lloyds-HBOS
integration. Robert Stodel, ex COO of
Credit Suisse First Boston, stumped
up equity to help the company start
up, acting as chairman. “We started
the company with £90,000. Last year,
turnover was £28.8m. It’s been an
incredible ride,” says Smith.
www.investigo.co.uk
70%
OF IT SKILLFINDER’S
BUSINESS IS DONE
IN EUROPE. IT’S
ONE OF THE MAIN
PROVIDERS TO
THE GERMAN
STOCK EXCHANGE
Grant Brummer, IT Skillfinder
52 Intelliflo
This IT company was created in 2004
out of the IT department of a firm of
financial advisers. Nick Eatock ran
the MBO and took seven staff with
him. Intelliflo provides IT services to
the financial services sector, and sees
its web-based focus as key to its
success. Intelliflo expects an influx of
new customers thanks to upcoming
changes to the finance sector.
Pre-tax profits hit £1.6m last year.
www.intelliflo.com
53 B&M Retail
Since brothers Simon and Bobby
Arora bought B&M Retail in 2005,
growth has rocketed. On average,
B&M has opened a new store
once a week for the past
three years, helped by
l
ful0
vacancies left by Kwik
0 isit
1
for
t
Save and Woolworths.
holes, veal
fi 00.r s.
o
There are now 190
pr ot1 ines
h us uk
discount stores in the
b co.
chain, opening their doors
to 1.5 million shoppers per
week. Selling both householdbranded groceries and non-food
items in the North West, turnover
in 2009 hit £256m.
www.bmstores.co.uk
54 Affirmative Finance
A lawyer by trade, Eugene Esterkin
set up Affirmative to run parallel
with the law firm in which he is a
managing partner. Clients are
people who would ordinarily go
to banks for loans, “but banks are
closed for business,” says Esterkin.
Turnover has risen to £9m, while
pre-tax profit is £3.8m.
www.affirmativefinance.co.uk
55 IT Skillfinder
For this firm of IT recruitment
agents, size matters. Focused on
the financial sector and founded by
Darren Hall and Grant Brummer in
2003, IT Skillfinder aims to grow, but
never to the extent that Brummer
and Hall do not know everyone who
works for them. Though there are
only 16 employees, a European office
may be on the cards. Seventy per
cent of business is done in Europe
and the company is one of the
main providers to the German
Stock Exchange.
www.it-skillfinder.co.uk
56 Toppesfield
Toppesfield is run by husband-andwife team Gale and Matthew Pryor,
and their brother-in-law David Last,
who just “went to lend a hand for a
couple of weeks”, and is still there
six years later. A tarmacing company
that makes asphalt roads, car parks
and garage forecourts, Toppesfield
landed a lucrative contract to work
on the Olympic Park.
www.toppesfield.com
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 27
for
pro hot full
ho files100
t
bu 100.r, visi
s
t
e
coiness al
.uk .
57 Austin-Smith:Lord
Founded in 1949, this 11-partner
architectural firm has a portfolio
of projects including the Leeds City
museum, Blackburn Station, the
£40m Roseisle Distillery for Diageo,
and the Nissi Beach villas in Cyprus.
Turnover is £12.3m, while pre-tax
profit was £2.4m.
www.austinsmithlord.com
59 T.E.C Building
Services
Managing director Terry Connor
founded this Manchester-based firm
of builders in 1987, turning it into a
limited company in 1997. T.E.C now has
40 staff, a turnover £7.7m and pre-tax
profits of £969,000.
www.tecbuildingservices.co.uk
60 Maria Mallaband
Care Group
58 JVM Equipment
Dealing in construction, earthmoving
and lifting equipment, JVM was
founded in 1998 by Max Skillman
and former partner (now deceased).
Acting as a dealer for firms such as
JCB and Barford in Russia and
former Soviet Union countries, the
500-employee company has a depot
in all the biggest towns in Russia.
Skillman sees it as a “no-brainer” to
have focused on the region. “Russia
has 40 per cent of the world’s gas. It
is the richest country in the world – it
is all in the ground.”
www.jvmequipment.com
Another repeat entrant in the
Hot 100, this chain of care homes
has grown to 56 in total, with two
more in the pipeline. Founder
Philip Burgan has switched focus to
private homes, buying and building
in more affluent areas. The company
now has 75 per cent fee-paying
clients and a specialist autism
business, which is making a hefty
contribution to turnover.
www.mmcgcarehomes.co.uk
61 Manpower Direct
The brainchild of a group of university
friends, this Essex-based security
company, formed in 2003, provides
both plain-clothed and uniformed
security officers to shopping centres
and corporate and public-sector
clients. Manpower Direct has
expanded into event security and
car parking enforcement.
www.manpowerdirect.co.uk
0
NriaoM6allarobuapnd
Ma are G p
C hili
P gan
Bur
62 Excelian
This IT consultancy,
established in 2001
by Adrian Marshall and
Stephen Grant, provides
systems implementation to the
financial-services sector, and has
benefited from increased demand
for trading and risk-management
28 REAL BUSINESS 2010
100
CUSTOMERS,
£16M IN
SALES, AND
£2.9M PROFIT.
thunderhead
has seen
spectacular
growth
Glen Manchester, Thunderhead
technology. With the carbon
footprint of the worldwide IT
industry set to surpass the aviation
industry, Excelian has recently
extended into green consulting,
offering environmental audits and
reduced carbon computing. Sales
have surged to £13m.
www.excelian.com
63 Thunderhead
Nothing to do with shower fittings,
this firm provides electronic
communications software
predominantly to the financial
services sector. Thunderhead has
more than 100 customers and saw
sales rise from £4.1m to £15.9m
during the past four years. CEO Glen
Manchester won Entrepreneur of the
Year at our 2008 Real Business/CBI
Growing Business Awards.
www.thunderhead.com
64 Net-a-Porter
Hot 100 regular Natalie Massenet
has finally received an offer she
can’t refuse for her fashion etailer:
luxury-goods group Richemont
dangled £50m under her nose for
her remaining stake in Net-a-Porter.
Richemont already owned 33 per
cent, and Massenet has decided
to cash out. Last year, Net-a-Porter
posted profits of £10.1m on a
turnover of £81.5m. Massenet,
one of the nation’s finest dotcom
entrepreneurs, says she will remain
with the firm as executive chairman.
www.net-a-porter.com
65 Interface Contracts
This firm originally specialised in
servicing ship-to-shore cranes in UK
ports, when Chinese imports started
to undercut the market. With Interface
no longer in demand, managing
director David Taylor knew it was time
for a radical rethink. The firm shifted
focus to water utilities. Work poured
in. Last year, turnover rose to £5.3m.
“There’s no reason we can’t keep
growing at the same rate,” says Taylor.
www.interfacecontracts.com
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 29
66 Sun Contractors
Yaser Salman only founded his
property maintenance and facilities
management firm in 2004, but he’s
already hit a £7.7m turnover. Sun
Contractors also has a sizeable
construction and roofing division
for refurbishment and renovation.
www.suncontractors.co.uk
67 VTL Group
With five plants in Europe, India
and the US, VTL makes high-tensile
brass alloys and precisionengineered components for the
aerospace, automotive, construction
and oil industries. Toyota, RenaultNissan and Magna Powertrain are
just some of its customers. Owner
Bruno Jouan says VTL will continue
its global conquest: “There is no
such thing as a UK manufacturing
business. You have to go where your
customers are.”
www.vtl-group.com
68 Heartwood Wealth
Heartwood has £1bn of funds under
management, boasts 25 FTSE-100
chairmen among its customer base
of 1,400, and employs 70 staff. Chief
executive Simon Lough says an MBO
in 2005 has been key to growth.
“Two-thirds of the staff at
Heartwood own shares, and 93 per
cent of the shares are held by people
active in the business. New staff
have the opportunity to own shares
through a share-incentive plan.
Many wealth managers hit a ceiling
when they reach the half a billion to
a billion funds-under-management
mark because they can’t attract the
right people. We are breaking
through that ceiling because of our
ownership structure.”
www.heartwoodwealth.com
30 REAL BUSINESS 2010
£50m
was an amount
natalie Massenet
couldn’t refuse
for her stake
in luxury online
fashion firm
Net-A-Porter,
founded in 2000
69 Templeton
Recruitment
Founder Nadeem Ahmad started
Templeton Recruitment in 1996. “We
supply top-end IT contractors. At
the end of 2005, I decided to stop
doing everything myself and hired
experienced managers to run the
firm for me and find new clients. That
way I could take more of a back seat
and find time to think about how to
expand the business. Turnover rose
very quickly – and I’ve just hired two
managers who used to run much
larger firms than mine, so we can
continue to grow.”
www.templeton-recruitment.com
70 H&M Security
Services
Arsenal legend Frank
McLintock played
over 700 matches
and captained the
Gunners to the
league and cup
double in 1971. Now
he’s putting in
crunching tackles in the
corporate world as commercial
director of H&M, a security firm
based in East London. With
McLintock’s help, founder Ian
Henderson and financial director
Brian Tuite have won clients such as
Network Rail, Atkins and the NHS.
www.hmsecurityservices.co.uk
throughout the UK, New York,
Frankfurt, Chicago and New Jersey.
www.exponential-e.com
for rough seas. Skipper Ian Walker
says: “We’ve been around for years.
We know our industry is cyclical.
For us, this downturn is merely a
raincheck. Though it has been a tough
year for us, we’ve prepared carefully.”
www.carisbrookeshipping.net
74 RMJM
Mark Richards’ Mardi Foods is
a McDonald’s franchisee with 11
restaurants. With a profit of
£228,000 on a £13m turnover,
Richards is demonstrating the merits
of becoming a franchisee of Ray
Croc’s indefatigable fast-food chain.
Some of architects RMJM’s
buildings include the lopsided
Capital Gate skyscraper in Abu
Dhabi, the Beijing Olympic
Fencing Hall and the
headquarters of the three
largest pharmaceutical
companies in the world: GSK,
Wyeth and Sanofi-Aventis.
Revenue for the practice is just
short of £100m.
www.rmjm.com
72 Movewithus
75 Bibby Line Group
Movewithus is fast becoming a
household name. It represents more
than 1,000 independent estate agents
on a single site. Buyers browse
properties and are directed to the
assigned estate agents. Other
property service providers are linked
into the site, so buyers can use it as
a one-stop shop for probate, equity
release, assured maintenance and
general legal advice.
www.movewithus.co.uk
The oldest business in this year’s
Hot 100 is Bibby Line, a familyowned shipping firm founded over
200 years ago in Liverpool. Run
by the sixth-generation Sir Michael
Bibby, it’s also the largest, with
turnover topping £1bn. A run of bad
results in the eighties, including the
sinking of the largest ever British
ship, forced Sir Michael’s father,
Sir Derek to diversify, creating a
complex conglomerate, including
subsea construction to the offshore
oil industry; Bibby Private Equity,
which makes long-term investments
in entrepreneurial businesses;
a financial services division; and
many more.
www.bibbygroup.co.uk
71 Mardi Foods
73 Exponential-e
Founded by Lee Wade in the wake
of the dotcom crash in 2001, this firm
offers an alternative to traditional
internet technologies –
ethernet connections,
which are more secure,
faster, and easier for
IT support to
maintain. Now
employing 120
people and boasting
more than 900 clients,
Exponential-e has a
physical network presence
l
enaank
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r
“A d Fr k
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76 Probrand
Probrand’s online buying portal,
The IT Index, allows government
departments to log on and buy more
than 125,000 products from over
1,600 vendors. Birmingham-based
Probrand is also a major supplier of
IT kit to the private sector,
Massalie
enet
specialising in
large, complex
contracts. Accountancy
body ICAEW awarded it a Best
Practice Best Value accreditation.
www.probrand.co.uk
77 K & G Restaurants
Kurt Jansen is this year’s second
McDonald’s franchisee (see 71).
Jansen took over his first McDonald’s
in 2002 and now manages five
restaurants in the Essex area.
78 Entanet
Telford-based telecoms provider
Entanet supplies broadband, business
phone lines and voice services. The
company was founded by Taiwanese
entrepreneur Jason Tsai in 1990. By
1995, he’d grown the firm so much he
received an award from the president
of Taiwan for entrepreneurship.
Entanet employs 84 people.
www.entagroup.com
79 Carisbrooke
Shipping
The shipping industry took a serious
knock in 2008, when prices for dry
goods fell more than 90 per cent.
Fortunately for this Isle of Wightbased bulk shipper, it was prepared
80 Draycott Ward
Debonair rugby legend Jeremy
Guscott leads another life away from
the glamour of the television studios:
he is the marketing director of Bathbased construction company
Draycott Ward. Focused on the
insurance claim market, when floods
and hurricanes strike, Guscott and
co get a call from the insurers to sort
out the mess. “We see ourselves as
the fifth emergency service,” says
co-director Chris McKenty. And it’s a
profitable one: “We doubled business
because of the flooding in 2008.”
www.draycottward.co.uk
81 Boston Air
This East Yorkshire firm was
originally an air charter firm before
branching into finding employment
for workers in the aviation and
power industries. Today, sheet metal
workers, electricians, paint sprayers
and engine fitters from all over
Europe use Boston Air to find jobs.
The firm enjoys close links with some
of the biggest names in aviation,
including GE, Ryanair and Lufthansa.
www.bostonair.co.uk
82 Albourne Partners
Albourne Partners collects data and
writes reports on 1,760 hedge funds so
investors know which one to trust with
their money. Clients pay $240,000
a year for access to the database,
or $400,000 for premium access.
www.albourne.com
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 31
“Mo
r
fast Law is gan
est- the
recr gro
pubuiter in twing
not- lic a he
nd
fo
sectr-profit
or”
to-build schools in
Malawi and homes
and hospitals in
earthquake-stricken
Haiti. Director and
partner Aidan Potter says
the firm’s international outlook
has been vital. “The recession has hit
architects particularly hard, so we
are fortunate in having 25 per cent
of our work overseas.”
www.mcaslan.co.uk
83 Morgan Law
Recruitment
Morgan Law was founded by
David Morgan and Simon Law ten
years ago and is the fastest growing
recruiter in the public and not-forprofit sectors. With only 45
consultants, Morgan Law posts
a turnover of £24m – the highest
income-per-consultant ratio in the
industry. Morgan says they decided
to self finance the business, “so the
decisions come down to us, not
investors or banks”.
www.morgan-law.com
90 Beasons
Clive Beard founded construction and
refurbisher Beasons in 1996. The firm’s
recent contract wins include major
construction projects the O2 Arena,
St Paul’s School and King Sturge.
www.beasons.co.uk
84 Provanis
Neale Provan founded Provanis
with Dr Paul Parnis in 1997, supplying
Oracle application experts to bluechips. Parnis sadly died in 2005.
Provan says their appreciation for the
technical nature of the work defines
how Provanis is run: “We deliberately
try not to grow too fast. We prefer to
manage our growth so we can ensure
quality remains high.” Turnover is up
from £4m to £13m in four years.
www.provanis.com
91 Hill Dickinson
Law-firm Hill Dickinson is celebrating
its 200th anniversary this year. Based
in Liverpool, with offices in London,
Chester and Manchester, Hill
Dickinson also has branches in
Singapore and Piraeus, a legacy of its
origins as a maritime law specialist.
www.hilldickinson.com
85 Bactec International
The world’s leading landmine
and unexploded bomb disposer,
l
David Morgan (left) and Simon Law
ful0
r
Morgan Law Recruitment
Bactec has made more than
0
o
1
f ot , visit
h les eal
half a million devices safe in
fi 0.r .
more than 40 countries since
proot10iness
h
s
Drum Housing,
Radian is a private company limited
1991. Last year, the Rochesterbuco.uk
based business won a contract
Windsor Housing,
by guarantee and overseen by a
to clear the Baltic Sea of World
and Swaythling
board of non-executive directors.
Housing Society joined
www.radian.co.uk
War I and II mines to allow the laying
of a subsea gas pipeline.
forces with Turnstone Support, a care
www.bactec.com
provider. The merged entity is a major
force in social housing, owning and
managing around 17,000 affordable
homes in the South of England and
Thomsons Online Benefits supplies
Radian was formed at the start of
providing care and support to 470
expert advice to companies looking
2007 when social housing providers
people. Despite its charitable remit,
to get the most from their benefits
86 Radian
32 REAL BUSINESS 2010
87 Thomsons
Online Benefits
92 Nationwide
Maintenance
programme. The firm has won 24
industry awards, including Money
Marketing’s Corporate Adviser
of the Year gong six years running.
www.thomsons.com
of Fraser, Allianz and O2. Being a
premium supplier has its perks:
sq-m2’s typical commission would be
valued between £250,000 and £3m.
www.sq-m2.com
88 sq-m2
89 John McAslan
and Partners
Corporate interior designer sq-m2
was only founded in 2003, but already
has a roster of clients including House
This London-based architectural
practice has designed low-cost, easy-
Founded in 1982, Nationwide
Maintenance is a property services
firm headquartered in Godalming.
Nationwide has a strong presence
across England, with offices in the
North, Midlands and the South West.
www.nationmaint.co.uk
93 Risktec Solutions
Warrington-based Risktec Solutions
is a risk-management consultancy
wholly owned by its 100 employees.
Risktec made pre-tax profits of
HOT100.REALBUSINESS.CO.UK 33
£2.6m last year on sales of £13.4m
(nearly half of it in exports), and
the employees were able to enjoy
a dividend of £193,500.
www.risktec.co.uk
around 70,000 pigs on more than
100 farms in Yorkshire. The business
is a family concern with Mosey’s two
sons and daughter also on board.
www.ianmoseyltd.com
94 AJ Bell
97 D&P Data Systems
AJ Bell claims to be the largest
provider of self-administered
pensions and institutional
stockbroker services in the UK. Part
owned by Bank of New York, the
company pulled in sales of £38.5m
last year and profits of £16.4m,
allowing the company to pay
a whopping dividend of £4.2m.
www.ajbell.co.uk
Manchester-based D&P Data Systems
is a wholesaler of computer systems
and software. Founded in 1992,
turnover has increased from
£25.3m in 2006 to £78.8m,
while profits last financial
year were £3.7m.
www.dpdata.co.uk
Jeremy
95 Farr Vintners
London-based Farr Vintners is a
retail drinks company specialising in
fine Bordeaux wines. The minimum
order from its website is £500,
excluding VAT. And it’s very
profitable – last year it made £14.2m.
www.farrvintners.com
illustration: dan williams
96 Ian Mosey
Who better to run an animal-feed
company than a farmer? Ian Mosey
built a high-tech animal feed mill in
1999 in a move to cut the cost of
feeding his animals. His £21m-turnover
firm now supplies farmers within a
100-mile radius with feed. Mosey has
0
No 8W
ard
t
Draycot
list includes all the big
players in the sector:
APL, BHP-Billiton, Centrica,
Conoco Philips, Newfield,
Seastream, Trafigura and
Wellstream, to name a few. Turnover
hit £6m last year, with profits of
£549,200. The company was able
to pay a dividend of £394,000.
www.pdi-ltd.com
Guscott
98 Spedition
Services
Surrey-based Spedition Services
provides transport and logistic
services to Russia and the Central
Asian states. The two directors,
Yazmin Fazal and Jens Rastorp
shared a dividend of £533,300
this year and paid themselves
a combined total of £1.2m
www.spedition.co.uk
99 Project
Development
International
Project Development International
(PDI) specialises in the project
management and engineering of
petro-chemical projects. Its client
Acknowledgements
Compiled by Martin Tomkinson, Jo Russell, Charles Orton-Jones,
Kate Pritchard, Jason Hesse and Carryn Dewing.
100 Mainstay Group
Ten of the UK’s top 20 property
developers use facilities manager
Mainstay, based in Worcester.
Mainstay manages more than
25,000 rooms all over the UK. The
company has recently diversified
into complimentary services such
as cleaning and concierge services,
and risk inspections.
www.mainstaygroup.co.uk
LDC and Smith & Williamson co-sponsored the Hot 100. For more
information about LDC, contact Rob Pendleton at rpendleton@
ldc.co.uk, or visit www.ldc.co.uk. For more details about Smith &
Williamson, contact Ann Monks at [email protected].
co.uk, or visit www.smith.williamson.co.uk
Jordans, provider of business information, company searches and
risk-management products, supplied the Hot 100 financials. Visit
www.jordans.co.uk, or call Denise Sebastian on 0117 918 1283.
Full profiles of all the Hot 100 companies are available at hot100.realbusiness.co.uk Additional copies of the
Hot 100 are available from our subscriptions desk. To order, call 020 7368 7200
34 REAL BUSINESS 2010