Six West Midlands companies make export fast growth rankings

Stiltz Lifts at The Pensnett Estate, Kingswinford

Six companies from the West Midlands have made this year’s Sunday Times Lloyds SME Export Track 100 league table, which ranks SMEs with the fastest-growing international sales.

The region’s top-ranked company is Stiltz Lifts, ranked seventh. The West Midlands firm’s freestanding lifts plug into domestic electric sockets, and have been retrofitted into homes in more than 20 countries. Strong sales in the US, Germany and France helped it grow exports by 146% a year to £3.2m in 2016.

Stafford-headquartered contract engineer Mec Com is a new entry at 79. It makes components for clients in the power, food processing, rail and medical industries. In 2015 it signed a five-year, £2.7m contract with Siemens, helping it grow exports to £6.7m.

West Midlands SME Export Track 100

This latest research illustrates how closely connected Britain’s export drive is with its trading partners across both the Atlantic and the English Channel. A total of 85 of the companies sell to the continent, making it the most popular market, followed by North America (77).

This year’s SME Export Track 100 achieved, on average, international sales growth of 72% a year over two years to a total of £677m. They employ more than 8,000 staff, having added almost 3,000 jobs over the period.

The league table is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm. The full league table will be published as a broadsheet supplement in the business section of The Sunday Times on 26 February.

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