The Yorkshire Fastest 50 2016 analysed

While variety may be the spice of life, as the saying goes, is it a healthy sign for a regional economy?
Philip Jordan: Celebrating the diversity of Yorkshires business and high performance.Philip Jordan: Celebrating the diversity of Yorkshires business and high performance.
Philip Jordan: Celebrating the diversity of Yorkshires business and high performance.

On the evidence of this year’s Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50, the answering is a resounding ‘yes’.

Ever since Ward Hadaway first organised these awards for fast-growing privately-owned companies in 2011, we have seen a wide range of different sectors represented in each year’s list of pace-setting businesses.

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The class of 2016 is possibly the most diverse yet, encompassing as it does everything from a maker of chemical protection wear to civil engineers, housebuilders to healthcare technology companies.

Is this diversity good for Yorkshire’s economic well-being or would we be better off concentrating on a handful of sectors?

Theorists have argued about the merits of specialisation for years – and will probably continue to do so – but there is little to argue about the facts when it comes to the Fastest 50.

Thanks to the work of Bradford University School of Management who compiled this year’s Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50, we know that the 50 companies listed in the table opposite now have a combined turnover of £2.4bn, having increased their turnovers by a combined £1.13bn over the past three years. That’s just short of doubling their total turnover in 36 months – an impressive performance in anyone’s book, particularly when you bear in mind the fact that every company has remained profitable whilst doing so.

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This kind of rapid yet sustained growth is something akin to the holy grail of business performance and is something to be highlighted and celebrated – exactly the reason why we at Ward Hadaway started these awards in the first place.

Whilst the businesses themselves benefit from the hard work, skill and determination which have resulted in such success, their performance is also a real boon to the region as a whole. Not only do growing businesses create jobs, investment and prosperity, they also help to create confidence amongst their peers in the same region and they send out a positive message about the environment a location offers to companies with ambitions to expand.

That is one of the reasons why I am particularly pleased that ESP Systex is the overall fastest growing company for 2016.

As someone born and bred in Hull, it is great news for me to see a company from my home town doing so well, returning an average growth rate of 144.1 per cent a year.

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ESP Systex has achieved its success in what is a comparatively new field.

The company, which is part of the ESP Group, provides online payment and ticketing solutions to major organisations including Transport for London, the Association of Train Operating Companies and Go-Ahead Group.

Its innovative approach has seen it issue over 40 million smartcards and media across a wide variety of different schemes and with more journeys set to be paid via smartcards rather than traditional cash, ESP has a major influence in a growing sector.

The company is one of a number from across Yorkshire and Humberside who are succeeding with new technology.

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For example, High Street TV has grown rapidly via multi-channel retailing across TV and online sales as well as via traditional high street store chains, Leeds-based SICL provides IT services and solutions to customers in the corporate, SME and public sector markets and Xiros is at the cutting edge when it comes to implants, devices and surgical techniques for a range of injuries and conditions.

ESP’s success also shows more traditional qualities: persistence and consistency. The company was runner-up in the fastest growing large business category in the Yorkshire Fastest 50 2015 before doing even better this year to win both the category and the overall award.

Changing tack – and illustrating the point about the variety found in this year’s list – the winner of the fastest growing small company of 2016 operates in a very different field.

Pet Brands designs and manufactures accessories and treats for a wide range of domestic pets and wild birds.

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Whilst it walked off with the award for the fastest growing small company, the Dewsbury-based business thinks big. Not only does it licence and supply well-known brands in the pet sector, it also operates more than 40 of its own brands and its vision is to become “the No.1 partner for innovative, quality pet accessories and treats worldwide”.

This is not just talk – Pet Brands now sells to customers in 44 countries across the world and has offices and operations in China and India as well as its Yorkshire HQ.

This international outlook is shared by several of the companies in this year’s Yorkshire Fastest 50 list, including Leeds-based textile oils supplier Vickers Oils and Keighley’s Platinum Stairlifts, both of whom sell to international as well as domestic markets.

Transportation of course is key to successful exporting, as well as to ensuring goods get to customers across the UK on time and the winner of the fastest-growing medium-sized business award has built its success on this vital aspect of business life.

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Bradford-based Advanced Forwarding Ltd is part of the Advanced Supply Chain group and provides a range of logistics and international freight forwarding services.

The company says it views a supply chain as a pipeline with its role in removing any blockages which prevent the smooth flow of goods. It’s a philosophy which is clearly working – not only did Advanced Forwarding win the fastest-growing medium-sized business this year, it did so after winning the same awards in the 2015 Yorkshire Fastest 50 and its sister company Advanced Processing Limited featured in the 2014 Yorkshire Fastest 50.

This is a terrific performance, especially when you bear in mind that of the 50 companies in this year’s list, just 10 also appeared in the Ward Hadaway Yorkshire Fastest 50 for 2015.

Advanced Forwarding’s success is also not an isolated one for the region’s logistics sector. Other companies in this year’s Yorkshire Fastest 50 include Grimsby’s GB Terminals (Northern) Limited and Goole-based Simon Gibson Transport whilst in the wider transport sector, we have a series of car and commercial vehicle dealership companies in the list including Mac’s Transport (Northern) Limited, DM Keith Ltd, Meridian Motor Group Limited and Riverside Motors. In a very real sense, Yorkshire’s economy is on the move. Let us keep it that way.

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