'˜A robust and relationship-based approach will help UK rise to Brexit challenges'

Jamie Martin, the managing partner of Ward Hadaway, which organises the Yorkshire Fastest 50, said the legal industry and other fast-growing sectors are concerned about the uncertainty linked to Brexit.

He said: “We have a robust and relationship-based approach to business which will see us through Brexit and gives us an opportunity to encourage and support fast-growing companies across the North.

“This year’s Fastest 50 event in Yorkshire offers us a proactive way of communicating to others that the North remains a great place to do business.

“After the Brexit vote, there was initially some volatility in the market as companies tried to figure out what it meant to them, but since then businesses across Yorkshire have adopted a ‘get on with it’; approach and have continued to pursue investment and growth plans.”

He added: “No one can predict the long-term impact of Brexit, but I do think the next few years will be crucial for us and we need to keep doing what we do best – delivering results and supporting the high-quality companies that manage to profitably grow their businesses year on year.

“As a relationship-based business, we have to keep talking to our clients and sending out a positive message through the Fastest 50 to help drive fast-growing businesses forward.”

Mr Martin added that when the Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 was launched in 2011, the UK was still recovering from the after-effects of the global financial crisis and times were tough.

He added: “In 2011, we still saw a raft of high quality companies and it’s remained that way ever since. There is no doubt that Brexit will pose challenges of all kinds to businesses over the coming years, but it will also offer up opportunities.

“In the end, it will be the businesses which respond the quickest and which adapt the best in post-Brexit Britain that will prosper – and which will make up the Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 in years to come.”

He said: “Brexit presents us with the opportunity to provide legal clarity and reassurance to businesses.

“We know the importance of future trading arrangements with the EU and the rest of the world is vitally important to companies.

“That’s why we need to keep shouting about our region’s business success stories, what we can offer them and remain optimistic about the future.”

The winners of the 2018 Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards will be announced this Friday at Aspire in Leeds, when Sir Keir Starmer, Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union will be the guest speaker. Awards will be presented to the fastest growing small, medium-sized and large businesses, for companies with annual turnover of between £1m and £5m, between £5m and £15m and turnover of more than £15m respectively.

One of those three winners will then receive the accolade of being crowned Yorkshire’s overall fastest-growing business for 2018.

Greg Wright, The Yorkshire Post’s deputy business editor, will also speak at the awards.

The Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 is compiled using information from Companies House to create a run-down of the privately-owned, profit-making companies that have seen the biggest expansion in their turnover in recent years.

A special supplement about the 2018 Yorkshire Fastest 50 will be published with The Yorkshire Post next Tuesday.

Ward Hadaway is one of the UK’s Top 100 law firms with offices in Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester.

Ward Hadaway employs 450 people in its team and more than 90 partners, with nationally recognised legal specialists in a wide range of sectors, including banking and finance, company commercial and corporate finance.