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The Ringwood-based company Churchill Retirement Living, which specialises in purpose-built apartments designed to meet the needs of independent retired people, is the highest-placed business from the Solent area in this year’s national Profit Track 100 league table.


The Sunday Times BDO listing ranks Britain’s 100 private companies with the fastest- growing profits over their latest three years, placing Churchill in 21st position through its sales last year of £186.9 million which gave a profit of £62.8m, an average profit growth over the three years of over 94%.


It was founded in 1994 by brothers Spencer and Clinton McCarthy, who completed their first specialist retirement development in 2001, since when profits have taken off. Growing demand from an ageing population helped Churchill increase the number of properties sold by 17% to 574 in 2016.


The company originally started out building stone and thatched cottages in and around Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire under the name of Emlor Homes. It began with an office based in Clinton’s garage in the New Forest, but by 1998 had grown to such an extent that it was voted “Housebuilder of the Year” by What House? magazine.


Churchill now has retirement apartments across the UK, operating from six regional offices.


Winchester-based MAATS Tech (52nd in the national table) was founded in 1989 by the oil and gas sector veteran John Holt and


Keeping profit on track


specialises in the design and conversion of ships that work on sub-sea construction and cable and pipe laying.


In 2016 the business had sales of £33.2m and increased profits to £8.4m – giving an average profit growth of 76% – helped by the delivery of several completed vessels to customers in Brazil and Norway.


Currently employing 40 people, it plans to expand its specialist cable laying business to service the developing offshore wind industry. Lisa Edwards took over as managing director last October.


The family firm of Pennyfarthing Homes (61st in the table), based at New Milton near Christchurch, has been building homes in Dorset and Hampshire for more than 40 years, although the current name was born in 1998.


With a staff of 65, projects range from town centre apartments to luxury coastal homes. The business is run by executive chairman Mark Adams and managing director Matthew Dukes. Mark’s brother Danny and his father Trevor are also directors.


An increase in both the selling price and number of homes sold helped sales to £35.8m and profits more than double to £5.7m last year, giving an average growth of 73%.


Another Solent company in the table is Talley Group (63rd), the Romsey-based business whose medical equipment is designed and made in its Hampshire factory;


A new sponsor joins the 2017 WiB campaign


Audit, Tax and Advisory services firm KPMG has joined the line-up of sponsors for this years Women in Business campaign.


Now in its fourth year the Women in Business campaign is much more than an awards ceremony. The campaign incorporates a series of roundtables, seminars, interviews and regular Women in Business news through a dedicated website and social media stream on Twitter.


The Awards night is being held at Oakley Hall Hotel, near Basingstoke on Thursday September 21 and is currently open for entries and nominations.


Contact Libby Sharp at libby@elcot.co.uk for more details or visit the website to download a nomination form.


For sponsorship opportunities contact Tamsin Napier-Munn at tamsin@elcot.co.uk.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – MAY/JUNE 2017 businessmag.co.uk 5


womeninbusiness.biz @Women_in_B


it also makes pressure-relieving mattresses and devices to treat deep vein thrombosis.


Founded in 1953 by Henry Talley, the business has over 50 staff and is now led by his grandsons Chris and John Evans. Sales hit £23.8m in 2015 giving profits of £6.1m and an average growth of 73% – figures being boosted by a contract with a US distributor.


Millbrook Industries, the Southampton family-owned business founded in 1946 as a re-upholsterer, squeezed into the league table at number 97. It has now moved into the manufacture of beds and mattresses.


The current group, born in 1998, now employs some 750 staff and also provides painting services to military organisations and operates in healthcare, servicing more than 50,000 wheelchairs for the NHS and supplying daily living aids to councils and primary care trusts. Chairman Colin Croll led the group to sales of £108m in 2016 with profits at £6.9m, an average growth of 59%.


Another Solent company, builders’ merchant Sydenhams based at Bournemouth, featured in the Profit Track “Ones to Recognise” top 10 which represents the best of the rest of the companies whose profit growth fell just short of the main league table but who have shown good profit growth in the past and are set to grow rapidly in the future. The company made profits of £5.9m in 2016.


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