Top Track 250 regional press release Thursday 9 October 2014 THIRTEEN COMPANIES IN THE SOUTHWEST - INCLUDING THREE NEW ENTRANTS APPEAR IN LEAGUE TABLE OF THE UK’S PRIVATE MID-MARKET GROWTH COMPANIES Published this weekend, the 10th annual Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250 league table ranks Britain's leading private mid-market growth companies with the biggest sales. The 13 companies headquartered in the southwest of England (compared to 15 last year) have made a strong contribution to the local economy. These companies all increased sales or profits by at least 10% year-on-year, achieving combined sales of £3.5bn and employing more than 25,000 people. The biggest mid-market private company in the region is Plymouth-based discount retailer The Range. Chris Dawson, 62, founded the company in 1989, and has made a name for himself as an astute dealmaker - when the MFI chain went bust, he bought £68m of their stock from the administrators for less than £3m. The Range now has 88 stores and sales grew 23% to £470m in the year to January. There are three entrants that were not on the league table last year. They are Plymouth-based Princess Yachts, energy supplier Ovo Energy, headquartered in Bristol, and Swindon-based furniture retailer Oak Furniture Land. Jason Bannister, 43, set up Oak Furniture Land ten years ago, selling furniture on eBay and now has 57 showrooms. Sales nearly doubled to £146m in 2013 and are forecast to be in excess of £190m this year. The companies in the southwest of England appear with businesses from around the UK, including Aston Martin, Barbour, Dr Martens, Jeyes, Nando’s, Pret A Manger, and Warburtons. The Grant Thornton Top Track 250 league table and awards programme is sponsored by Grant Thornton and Barclays, and compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events company. Tim Lincoln, South West practice leader at Grant Thornton UK LLP, the title sponsor of the league table, praised the companies for their performance: “These mid-sized businesses are such an integral part of the UK economy. They continue to thrive and grow, often on an international stage and their achievements are rightly celebrated here in the Top Track 250. We listen carefully to them about the barriers, challenges and opportunities that they see and, through our ‘Agents of growth’ campaign, champion policy changes that will help. We think this dynamic segment of the market is starting to find a voice and is being heard.” Leading mid-market companies in the southwest of England – ordered by location and then rank HQ location and county Rank [2013 rank] Company Activity Sales £m Profit ‡ £m Staff Year end Main shareholders Bristol 103 [119] Yeo Valley Yoghurt and dairy maker †256.1 †5.3 1,657 Jun 13 Mead family (100%) Bristol 147 [170] Midas Group Builder 202.9 2.0 378 Apr 14 Steve Hindley (63%), Michael Hocking (32%), Alan Hope (5%) HQ location and county Rank [2013 rank] Company Activity Sales £m Profit ‡ £m Staff Year end 171.7 2.0 247 Dec 13 Stephen Fitzpatrick (50%), Sophia Fitzpatrick (50%) *158.1 *9.2 2,181 Mar 14 Bridgepoint and management 395.2 12.9 813 Dec 13 David and Betty Carr (90%), Andy Barrett (10%) *470.0 *46.0 5,800 Jan 14 Chris Dawson and family (100%) Main shareholders Bristol 191 Ovo Energy Energy supplier Bristol 209 [219] Oasis Dental Care Dental care provider Helston Cornwall 53 [57] Helston Garages Car dealer Plymouth Devon 34 [50] The Range Discount retailer Plymouth Devon 107 Princess Yachts International Motor yacht builder 249.9 20.4 2,271 Dec 12 L Capital and others Bournemouth Dorset 82 [105] McCarthy & Stone Retirement home builder 310.8 40.7 899 Aug 13 Goldman Sachs, TPG, other equity funds Bournemouth Dorset 133 [168] Westover Group Car dealer 211.9 6.0 551 Dec 13 Peter Wood and family trust (100%) Poole Dorset 61 [72] Lush Cosmetics manufacturer and retailer 362.9 17.5 6,659 Jun 13 Mark Constantine (38%), Margaret Constantine (24%), Andrew Gerrie (11%), others (27%) Chard Somerset 140 [152] Ferndale Foods Ready-meals producer 208.8 7.5 2,445 Mar 13 Bigwood family (96%), S Harmer (4%) Swindon Wiltshire 83 [89] Dick Lovett Companies Car dealer 308.2 6.2 512 Dec 13 Peter Lovett (100%) Swindon Wiltshire 242 Oak Furniture Land Wood furniture retailer 145.5 7.2 616 Sep 13 Jason Bannister (100%) ‡ Operating profit before exceptional items * Figures are pro forma, draft, or not yet filed at Companies House † Annualised figure The national picture The Grant Thornton Top Track 250 complements the Top Track 100, which features Britain’s biggest private companies and was published in June. It ranks the next 250-biggest companies by sales, provided either sales or profits have increased by at least 10% year-on-year. The 250 companies generated total combined sales of £70bn, operating profits of £4.4bn and employed a total of 412,000 staff. The Grant Thornton Top Track 250 companies are predominantly based in London (54) and the southeast (40). The remainder are headquartered in Yorkshire and Northeast (33), the Midlands (30), Northwest (27), Scotland (26), East (14), Southwest (13), Northern Ireland (8) and Wales (5). Ten years of Top Track 250 Top Track 250 was launched ten years ago to recognise the success of Britain’s top-performing mid-market private companies. Since its launch more than 700 British companies have appeared on the league table. Companies from the southwest that featured over the years include Wiltshire-based Dyson, which was first featured in 2005 with sales of £277m, and last year reported sales of £1.3bn. It is still owned by founder Sir James Dyson and appears on our Top Track 100; and Exeter-based airline operator Flybe (featured 20052009), which floated in 2010 and is now valued at £265m. Other well-known past stars that have floated on the stock market include online grocery retailer Ocado (now valued at £1.6bn) and discount retailer B&M Retail (now valued at £2.8bn), while others have been acquired, such as breakfast cereal maker Weetabix (in a £1.2bn deal) and car parts retailer Euro Car Parts (in a £225m deal). The full league table will be published as an 8-page broadsheet supplement with the business section of The Sunday Times on 12 October, both in print and in the digital edition, and on www.fasttrack.co.uk. ENDS PLEASE CREDIT IN FULL: “THE SUNDAY TIMES GRANT THORNTON TOP TRACK 250” For further information please contact: Mike Harding, senior research manager, Fast Track 01865 297015, or [email protected]. Notes for editors Fast Track has published league tables of top-performing private companies with The Sunday Times for the past 18 years. Its invitation-only dinners provide a valuable opportunity for entrepreneurs to network and meet its sponsors. The company was founded and is run by Dr Hamish Stevenson, who also holds an associate fellowship at Green Templeton College, Oxford University. League table criteria: As mentioned above, companies are ranked by sales in their latest available accounts. The league table complements the Sunday Times Top Track 100 league table of Britain’s private companies with the biggest sales, listing the next 250 biggest companies, provided sales or operating profits have increased by at least 10% from the penultimate to their latest financial year. Companies have to be registered in the UK, unquoted, and not subsidiaries. Companies may have their ultimate holding company offshore. Companies where the majority of turnover is generated by a quoted subsidiary are excluded, as are not-forprofit companies, cooperative societies, member-owned buying groups, mutual societies, provident associations, betting exchanges, and partnerships such as lawyers and accountants. The research was carried out by Fast Track and accounts filed later than 1 September 2014 may not have been considered in compiling the league table. About Grant Thornton UK LLP Dynamic organisations know they need to apply both reason and instinct to decision-making. At Grant Thornton UK LLP, this is how we advise our clients every day. We combine award-winning technical expertise with the intuition, insight and confidence gained from our extensive sector experience and a deeper understanding of our clients. The real benefit for dynamic organisations is more meaningful and forward-looking advice that can help to unlock their potential for growth. In the UK, we are led by more than 185 partners and employ 4,200 of the profession's brightest minds. We provide assurance, tax and specialist advisory services to over 40,000 privately held businesses, public interest entities and individuals nationwide. Grant Thornton is one of the world's leading independent assurance, tax and advisory firms. www.grant-thornton.co.uk About Barclays Barclays is a major global financial services provider with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. We provide corporate banking solutions to businesses with an annual turnover of more than £5 million in the UK, and to large local companies, financial institutions and multinationals in non-UK markets. We support the success of our clients by providing lending, risk management, cash and liquidity management, trade finance, and asset and sales financing. 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