Published this weekend, the 16th annual Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits over the last three years.
Appearing on the league table for the first time, Kettering-based shoe manufacturer Loake Brothers is the sole representative from the East Midlands. It has grown profits an average of 51% a year over the last three years to £3.8m in 2014, placing the company at No 68. It takes 130 skilled craftsmen eight weeks, using up to 75 different parts, to make the shoes sold by this fifth generation family firm. Under managing director Andrew Loake, 56, the firm exports to more than 50 countries.
Loake Brothers features alongside businesses from around the UK, including bicycle manufacturer Brompton Bicycles, travel search engine Skyscanner, biscuit and cake maker Tunnock’s, and home accessories retailer The White Company.
The Profit Track 100 is sponsored by BDO, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking and UBS Wealth Management. It is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm.
Gareth Singleton, partner and head of the East Midlands at BDO, the title sponsor of the league table, commented on the region’s success story:
“Medium-sized businesses in the East Midlands and across the UK are thriving. Our newly-named ‘Brittelstand’ has outgrown the German ‘Mittelstand’ with mid-market businesses across all sectors seizing the opportunities a growing economy presents. The East Midland’s most profitable companies have remained focused on sustainable growth by making intelligent investment decisions in innovation and overseas expansion.”
The national picture
The 100 companies on this year’s league table grew their profits over the last three years by an average of 68% a year to combined profits of £1.4bn in their latest available accounts. Together they employed 76,200 staff, having added 24,500 employees to their workforce during this time, some as a result of acquisitions.
Just under half of the companies on the league table are headquartered in London (26) and the Southeast (19). Of the remainder, 11 are based in the Northwest, 11 in Scotland, 10 in Yorkshire, 6 in the Southwest, 6 in the West Midlands, 3 in the East of England, 3 in Northern Ireland, 3 in Wales, 1 in the East Midlands, and 1 in the Northeast.
