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Tracking the region's international sales growth
The public’s continued love for a night out at the theatre – despite the digital age bringing more and more entertainment into the home – has lifted a Thames Valley company to the top of this year’s Sunday Times International Track 200 league table, which ranks UK companies’ international sales growth over the latest two years of available accounts (with minimum sales of £25 million).
The Woking-based Ambassador Theatre Group is now the world’s largest live-theatre group with 39 venues, including the Lyceum and Apollo Victoria in London. Ambassador’s co- productions include The Ruling Class, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Richard III, Jersey Boys and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Its ticketing division issues more than 11 million tickets a year.
Founded in 1992 by Sir Howard Panter and his wife Rosemary Squire, the company opened a base in New York in 2007 and two years later bought 16 theatres from rival Live Nation for £90m, funded by private- equity firm Exponent. Greg Dyke, former director-general of the BBC, became chairman after the buyout and in May 2013 it bought Broadway’s biggest theatre – Foxwoods, now known as The Lyric – for a reported £40m. Its success prompted private-equity house Providence Equity Partners to acquire a majority stake in October 2013, valuing Ambassador at £350m.
America now accounts for 85% of international sales, which reached £16.9m last year, up an average of 338% a year since 2012.
Berkshire provided five names in the table, with Bullitt Group of Reading (7th) leading the way. The company designs and manufactures mobile phones, audio products and accessories in partnership with brands such as Caterpillar, JCB, Kodak, Ted Baker and Ministry of Sound.
Richard Wharton and ex- Motorola colleagues Colin Batt and David Floyd set up the firm
in 2009, and Business Growth Fund invested £3.5m in 2013 to accelerate overseas expansion. Bullitt has offices in the US and China and sells to more than 50 countries, generating exports of £57.8m last year.
Talacrest of Ascot (17th) is a classic Ferrari dealer founded by former photo-journalist John Collins in 2000, selling historic cars at an average price of £2m to customers from around the world. The company generated international sales of £58.5m in 2014, driven by strong demand from the Far East, the US, Switzerland and the Middle East.
Best of four Oxfordshire companies in the listing is Banbury-based First Line (51st), led by co-founder and chairman Peter Joyner. Established in 1983 it supplies car parts to customers in 46 countries, with brands including Key Parts and Borg & Beck, a 100-year-old clutch brand it acquired in 2006. Last year First Line opened a German subsidiary, helping the group to generate exports of £7.2m.
One company founded as recently as 2010 made the top 100 – Slough-based BAP Pharma coming in at number 78. Started by former research scientist Bashir Parkar, it works with many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, supplying drugs used as benchmarks in their clinical trials. International sales grew to an annualised £20.1m in 2013, and the company now plans to open an office in America this year.
An Abingdon company also managed to creep into the top 100, Ability Matters (98th) making its mark for prosthetic and orthotic devices such as artificial knee joints and braces. It also runs clinics in Britain and Ireland, and launched a centre just outside New Delhi in 2013 to treat patients in India and surrounding countries. Founded in 1989 by Michael O’Byrne, it had international sales of £3m in 2013.
Pacific Produce at Thame (no.105) was founded in 2010
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2015
by Rob Cullum and Estuardo Malaga to sell citrus fruit and avocados from Malaga’s farm in Peru. Growth in exports from Peru and the collapse of competitor Agrexco in 2011 helped international sales reach £4.5m last year.
Wallingford-based MMR (no.131) was founded 26 years ago by David Thomson, a visiting professor in sensory and consumer science at the University of Reading, and his wife Teresa Church. Petropian at Guildford (no.137) was founded in 1976 to supply staff to the oil, gas and energy industries, now
with 10 offices on six continents. High Wycombe-based Optima Group (no.147) comprises OAG, a specialist in architectural glazing, and Optima, which makes and installs partitions.
Companies in the lower reaches of the table include Rebound Electronics of Newbury (no.170), which sources electronic components from manufacturers around the world to sell to top brands, Hammer of Basingstoke (no.184) which customises, distributes and supports data storage products, and Wokingham-based Xeretec (no.196) the largest provider of managed print services in western Europe.
The International Track 200 table is compiled by Oxford-based Fast Track and sponsored by HSBC.
In the October issue of The Business Magazine
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