10 NW firms make Profit Track 100 rankings

TRAVEL Counsellors, the Bolton-based travel agency, is the highest placed of 10 North West companies winning a place on the prestigious Sunday Times PwC Profit Track 100.

The league table ranks Britain’s privately-owned companies with the fastest-growing profits over the last three years of available audited accounts, and will be published this weekend.

The 10 companies, which also include TheBusinessDesk.com North West Business Masters Finalist ATG Access, footwear firm The Jacobson Group and cloud computing firm UKFast, have combined profits of £47m and employ 1,600 staff, having added 300 jobs in the last three years.

Travel Counsellors is the region’s highest-ranked company at 13th. It was founded in 1994 by chairman David Speakman, 66.

The family-owned business provides customised holiday and corporate travel packages and has been growing fast as the firm has exported its business model to Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, South Africa, Canada and Dubai. Profits rose 103% a year to £4.8m in 2011.

Knutsford-based de Poel is also included in the list for the second consecutive year going up 28 places to be ranked No16 this year, having grown profits 97% a year to £6.7m.

Rossendale-based footwear firm Jacobson Group, Manchester-based drinks distributor LWC, and Cheshire-based PVC manufacturer Berwin Group are also all ranked in the top 30.

Alison Lever, Partner and North West Private Business Leader at PwC, the title sponsor of the league table for the 14th year, commented on the region’s success stories:

“The North West’s privately owned businesses are crucial to the economic recovery of the region and the country. These are businesses that innovate to improve people’s lives, build vital infrastructure, and export world class products and services to faster growing parts of the world, enabling everyone in Britain to benefit from the success of other countries as well as our own.

“The Profit Track 100 demonstrates the successes of these businesses across a variety of sectors and serves to highlight the valuable contributions they make.”

The Profit Track 100 is sponsored by PwC, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking and UBS Wealth Management. It is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events company.

Here is the full table: