13 Tech sector stars shine bright


The new Southern Tech 100, published this month, is a £6 billion array of diverse businesses from innovative pathfinders to ‘box shifters‘


Turnover across the 100 companies has stood firm at circa £6b although there have been winners and losers in the league table. Employee numbers have held steady at about 18,600.


Unsurprisingly, Westcoast remains at number one. It is after all the number one UK distributor for many of its vendors including HP, Toshiba and Samsung.


What is impressive is that turnover has jumped from just over £1b to nearly £1.5b in a year. The company won Business of the Year at the 2015 Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards on the back of its significant growth.


Arqiva, which provides much of the infrastructure behind television, radio, satellite and wireless communications in the UK, is at number two.


The Group‘s turnover is up to £856.7 million, an increase of 3.6% over the prior year. Pre-tax profit stands at £100m.


Arqiva has offices at Winchester and Chalfont St Peter and its customer base includes the BBC, O2, Sky, Vodafone and BT.


Airwave (number three) delivers mission-critical communications. As the largest private operator of a public safety network in the world, Airwave provides solutions for police forces, ambulance services and emergency planners.


The success of the Slough company has led Motorola Solutions to announce that it intends acquiring Airwave for £817.5m.


With 600 employees, Airwave spent £1.4b to create the Airwave Network, which was purpose-built to meet the needs of emergency services.


Motorola Solutions is listed on the New York Stock Exchange – so this is the last year that Airwave will appear in our listings as a Southern Tech 100 company.


Sophos (number four) continues to grow. As the global leader in network security, with more than 100 million users in 150 countries, the Oxford company completed 2015 by acquiring Dutch-based SurfRight, an innovator


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – FEBRUARY 2016 www.businessmag.co.uk


in signature-less endpoint threat detection.


The company has now gone public, with the biggest initial public offering for a UK software group, so this is the last year it will appear in the Southern Tech 100.


Enrichment Technology (ETC) at number six, operates as an independent company although it is actually a joint venture between URENCO and AREVA. ETC is an innovative technology business committed to ”the safe, competitive, and sustainable delivery of enrichment technology services and energy solutions to customers”.


Brandpath (number six) is the £150m turnover Marlow group that owns Data Select and Expansys. Under chairman Peter Jones, of Dragon Den‘s fame, Brandpath is ”the only truly end-to-end solutions provider for many of the world‘s leading global brands”. Clients range from Google and Vodafone to Asda and Tesco.


Sponsored by Barclays bank, the leading intellectual property specialists Marks & Clerk, business advisers Moore Stephens and recruitment specialists GCS, the Southern Tech 100 is The Business Magazine‘s annual listing of the top 100 private, independent technology companies in an area stretching from Banbury to the Isle of Wight.


www.cvdfk.com Rules of engagement


The 100 listing is ranked by turnover. The key criteria for inclusion are:


• The company is independent and private


• It is headquartered with its main trading address in the region


• Listed companies (either LSE or foreign markets) are excluded


• Companies that list their registered office in the region, but don‘t trade from that address, are excluded


• Foreign-owned companies are excluded


• Multinationals are excluded • Companies House records are used, provided by FAME.


Event


Next month, The Business Magazine and the Southern Tech 100 sponsors host an invitation-only dinner at the ForburyHotel in Reading for technology companies. For further details, email our events manager:


Linda Morse • linda@elcot.co.uk


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