NW leads regions in Sunday Times Profit Track league
FOURTEEN North West companies have made the Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table – more than any other region outside London and the South East.
It ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits over the last three years.
The 14 companies headquartered in the North West (compared with 10 last year) have combined profits of £96m and employing 4,120 staff, having added 1,200 jobs in the last three years.
The region’s highest ranked company is Cheshire-based online retailer The Hut Group, which made the top three.
The group principally sells branded and own-brand health and beauty products through websites that include Lookfantastic, Myprotein and Exante Diet. It grew profits an average of 178% a year from £505,000 in 2010 to £11m in 2013, before exceptional costs, on £185m of sales.
Matthew Moulding, chief executive and co-founder of The Hut Group, said: “The award is a recognition of the incredibly talented people within the group, the strength of our proprietary technology and data platform and the international reach of our health and beauty brands.
“Growth in 2014 is continuing at record levels and our focus remains firmly on establishing the Group as the global Health and Beauty destination online.”
New entrants to the league table include Lancashire-based bathroom and tile retailer Better Bathrooms, which last year secured £10m of funding from Business Growth Fund; and Manchester-based online travel agency On The Beach, in which Inflexion Private Equity acquired a majority stake for £73m last year.
The region’s businesses feature on the league table alongside well-known brands such as restaurant operator Jamie’s Italian, shirtmaker Charles Tyrwhitt, biscuit and cake maker Tunnock’s, and sandwich shop operator Pret A Manger.
Tim Entwistle, partner and head of the northwest at BDO, the title sponsor of the league table, said: “The North West’s most profitable companies have remained focused, positioning their businesses for – and helping to create – the economic recovery we are now witnessing.”
The majority of the companies on the league table are headquartered in London (33) and the Southeast (17). Of the remainder, 14 are based in the North West, seven in the West Midlands and in Scotland, six in Yorkshire, five in the Southwest, four in the East of England, three in the Northeast and two in the East Midlands and Wales.
