~rising stars~ 24. Inspired Thinking Group
Turnover: £12.9m (+40%) Pre-tax profits: £1.1m (+12%) Sector: Marketing Based: Birmingham Simon Ward founded marketing services provider ITG in September 2009. Despite only officially launching its full range of services early this year, the business already boasts an impressive array of blue-chip clients, including KFC, Marks & Spencer, Asda and Nationwide. In June 2010, an injection of capital from ISIS Equity Partners enabled the business to complete the acquisition of Total Marketing Services. ITG has grown rapidly by using its software platform, MediaCentre, to deliver additional marketing services and efficiency gains to existing retail customers. The business continues to benefit from a strong pipeline of new business opportunities after winning a number of significant new clients and aims to continue rapid revenue and profit growth for the foreseeable future.
25. Balhousie Care Group
Turnover: £15.9m (+25%) Pre-tax profits: £4m (+50%) Sector: Residential care Based: Forfar, Scotland Balhousie Care Group is the largest privately-owned operator of nursing homes in Scotland. Led by its chairman, entrepreneur and philanthropist Tony Banks, the group currently has 22 homes across Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dundee and Perthshire. Banks says, ‘We are constantly looking at ways of developing and expanding the business, and we have new homes on the way as well as improvements scheduled for several existing ones. It’s been the hard work of our employees at every level of the business that has allowed us to be as successful as we are.’
27. Andor Technology
Turnover: £42.7m (+28.9%) Pre-tax profits: £5.8m (+25.8%) Sector: Electronics Based: Belfast Based in Belfast, Andor Technology is a leader in the scientific digital camera market. Andor was set up in 1989 out of Queen’s University in
Belfast, and now employs more than 260 people in 16 offices worldwide, distributing its products to 10,000 customers in 55 countries. In July, Andor announced the launch of the latest addition to its New iStar range of high-performance, intensified ICCDs, a major technology used in digital imaging and the fastest of its type in the marketplace.
29. Mobile Interactive Group
Turnover: £78m (+15%) Pre-tax profits: £1.1m (+207%) Sector: Technology/IT Based: London Mobile Interactive Group (MIG) is a privately-owned UK technology company providing platforms and services across the mobile industry. Having invested about £20 million in technology in the past seven years, the company is now seeing the fruits of its labour. It has built a mobile payment platform, a mobile commerce platform, a mobile customer response management system, a mobile application development environment, a digital technology platform and a mobile advertising system. Clients include Twitter, Facebook, O2, Vodafone, Sky and ITV.
28. White Stuff
Turnover: £83.7m (+43%) Pre-tax profits: £15.9m (+76%) Sector: Retail Based: London Ski fanatics George Treves and Sean Thomas, who sold T-shirts in the Alps to fund their lifestyle, started outfitter White Stuff in the 1980s. Since then, the retailer’s offerings have diversified. No longer an adolescent business, White Stuff has grown steadily and professionally, with 75 shops selling smart-casual clothes and accessories. Despite tough times in the retail sector, the business posted a significant jump in profit last year.
26. Argus Media
Turnover: £41m (+26%) Pre-tax profits: £13.8m (35%) Sector: Market data Based: London Founded in 1970, Argus, formerly known as Petroleum Argus, had a transitional year highlighted by the appointment of former ExxonMobil executive Dennis Houston as a non-executive board director. In a move taking the price information and market data business into the fertilisers and chemicals sector, Argus acquired FMB Consultants in what chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks described as a deal expanding the company into commodity market reporting beyond energy.
business xl 35
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