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Region's success in the Top Track 250


A Reading catering and hospitality company that sprang up in the millennium, and is still 78% owned by the founder’s family, has been named the top Thames Valley company in the latest Sunday Times Top Track 250 league table based on sales.


WSH was launched by chairman and chief executive Alastair Storey whose latest acquisition for the group is Searcys, which runs the restaurant at the top of London’s Gherkin building. Other brands include the catering and restaurant business BaxterStorey and Benugo, which has cafés at tourist attractions such as Edinburgh Castle and the Natural History Museum.


Sales last year totalled £509.7 million with profits at £24.5m. The group now employs over 13,000 staff, with management owning 8% of shares.


WSH was sixth in the national UK '250', the sister publication of the annual Top Track 100 which identifies Britain’s 100 private companies with the biggest sales. provided either sales or operating profits have increased by at least 10% in their latest accounts.


Second in the regional table (18th in UK) was Opus Energy, an Oxford-based company that supplies electricity and gas to more than 240,000 British businesses. Its broker pricing portal, launched last year, enables online management of the entire brokering process from initial quote to acceptance of the contract. As a result, 85% of its broker quotes are now completed online, up from 6% before the portal’s launch.


Opus is led by chief executive and co-founder Charlie Crossley Cooke, who founded it in 2002 and now employs some 570 staff. Sales rose 21% in the year to March to £524.3m, with profits at £38.2m.


Apology THAMES VALLEY MAGAZINE


BUSINESS AWARDS 2015


The Business Magazine would like to apologise for comments made on stage at the Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards regarding Ridgeway and Volkswagen. These comments were made by the presenter as an ad-lib and were not in the script.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – DECEMBER 15/JANUARY 16 An apology


We enjoy an excellent relationship with Ridgeway Group, which is one of the Thames Valley’s business success stories, and would like to disassociate ourselves from such comments.


Ridgeway was Highly Commended in the


Best Company to Work For category of this year’s awards and runner-up last year. In 2014, the company was also the winner of the Best Use of Technology award.


For the full report of the Awards see page 34. www.businessmag.co.uk


In third place was Softcat (23rd in UK), the Marlow-based company that sources and resells software, hardware, security systems, data storage and IT services to corporate and public-sector clients, including the NHS and the Department for Education.


Strong demand for its IT security and cloud-based services helped sales rise 28% to £504.8m last year, clocking up £35.5m profits.


The company was founded in 1993 and led by chief executive Martin Hellawell. Employees and management (totalling 600) currently own 31% of shares.


Travelodge (25th in table) was founded in 1985 and now claims to be Britain’s largest independent hotel chain, operating more than 500 hotels and 38,000 rooms across the UK, Ireland and Spain from its headquarters at Thame.


More than 17m people stayed in the company’s facilities last year, with almost 80% making their reservation online. Sales last year were £497.2m, generating £30.3m profits, with management still owning 50% of shares. The group’s £100m modernisation programme will be completed this year.


Sandwiches, chilled snacks and salads made by Adelie Foods put the Heathrow-based company in 80th place; they are delivered to customers that include supermarkets, high street retailers and coffee shops across the country.


Bought by HIG Capital in March, the group was founded in 2006, is led by chief executive Gavin Cox and includes the brands Urban Eat and Cranks. Sales totalled £294.7m and profits £19.4m through a staff of over 2,600.


Wyevale Garden Centres (83rd), the garden


centre chain headquartered at Hounslow, has made a series of acquisitions since private equity firm Terra Firma bought it for £276m in 2012, expanding its network to 149 centres.


Under chief executive Kevin Bradshaw and chairman Stephen Murphy it bought nine garden centres in 2014 alone and now employs 3,500 people. Sales last year were £290.4m with profits of £39.3m.


The construction services firm Clancy Docwra (86th), founded in the 1950s by Michael Clancy, is now run at Uxbridge by his sons Kevin and Dermot. Profits increased 31% to £4.9m in 2015 on sales of £280.9m as the group maintained its position in the water sector and continued to expand in the energy and transport sectors for clients such as Transport for London.


Projects last year included upgrading the electricity infrastructure on London’s Carnaby Street for UK Power Networks.


Huntswood, the Reading customer service provider with a staff of over 1,300, was placed 108 in the table after growing sales 31% to £250.1m last year. Other Thames Valley companies in the lower reaches were Fresh Direct (154), the Bicester food distributor (sales £250.1m); Anesco, the Reading energy efficiency consultancy (212th, sales £160.2m); Vines, the Guildford car dealer (213th, sales £158.9m); Brandpath Group, the Marlow e-commerce technology developer (235th, sales £149.2m); PD Hook, the Bampton poultry producer (238th, sales £148.4m) and Petroplan, the Guildford recruitment consultancy (242nd, sales £144m).


The 11th annual Top Track 250 table was compiled by Oxford-based Fast Track.


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