The UK’s 25 fastest growing businesses have achieved average revenue growth of 239 per cent over the last three years with minimal equity investment.

Compiled as an antidote to fast-growth lists dominated by private equity and venture capital-backed businesses, Buzzacott’s inaugural Organic Growth 25 has highlighted the under-recognised and under-celebrated company thriving in the UK.

The 25 profitable businesses recorded revenue growth between 100 per cent and 1,212 pe cent over the latest three-year period, despite having received less than £1m equity investment in the last five years.

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Latest annual revenues ranged from £2m – the minimum requirement for consideration – to a remarkable £124m, despite none of the companies making acquisitions which contributed more than 10 per cent of that figure.

Matthew Katz, partner and head of corporate Finance at Buzzacott, said: “Our OG25 businesses have thrived from adopting a method of growth that is usually under-recognised and striving to achieve high growth in recent years. With this year posing many challenges for us all, it’s been particularly important to showcase this unheralded route to growth and the achievements it can lead to. This list is about celebration.”

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Organic Growth 25 companies

Buzzacott analysed over 30,000 businesses for its Organic Growth 25 list.

A1 Engineering Solutions

123% revenue growth
Founded in 2008
Located in South West England
Manufacturing sector

A1 delivers the highest quality refrigeration, mechanical and electrical installation services. Through its commitment to excellence and understanding its customer needs, A1’s name has become synonymous with quality and value. The company’s aim is to become the contractor of choice to the UK cold food chain, from factory to fork, while maintaining its strong “quality in all we do” principles and continuing to be competitive.

Affiliate Squared

541% revenue growth
Founded in 2011
Located in the East of England
FinTech sector

A £9bn revenue generating industry in the UK alone, affiliate marketing offers the best performance-based marketing return for online businesses of all sizes. Affiliate Squared and its network of brands has grown to become one of the UK’s leading affiliate marketing specialists, delivering over £150m of affiliate commission in 2018, derived from up to £2bn in generated sales revenue.

Alquity UK

162% revenue growth
Founded in 2012
Located in London
Asset management sector

Alquity is an asset management business that connects investors to their investments and social progress in order to deliver better financial outcomes for all. Alquity’s investments target attractive returns in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The company reinforces how social progress should drive financial success by donating a minimum of 10 per cent of its management fees to development projects in the regions it invests in.

Amoria Bond

122% revenue growth
Founded in 2006
Located in North West England
Consultancy sector

Amoria Bond’s global service-reach is continuously expanding, and the business is one of the fastest-growing privately-owned companies in Europe. The professional accolades have mirrored the commercial successes attained from both within and outside of the recruitment industry, including multiple business awards in the last five years, with a vision to be the best service driven consultancy and staffing group in global STEM markets.

Arcus

132% revenue growth
Founded in 2009
Located nationwide
Facilities sector

Arcus is a tech-led facilities management (FM) company driven by over 4,000 people. The business is underpinned by four core pillars: technology, innovation, social value and training. Arcus offers a personalised approach to FM, working collaboratively and in partnership with its clients. To grow successfully, Arcus believes in developing great solutions that not only improve service delivery but also reduce cost.

Bee Health

202% revenue growth
Founded in 1992
Located in Yorkshire
Medical sector

Bee Health has grown from a small business specialising in bee-derived ingredients, to become a leading manufacturer of vitamins and supplements. The company continues to develop and produce the original Bee Health Propolis products that inspired its name. Bee Health has been named in various growth lists as overseas sales grew an average of 33 per cent per year over the three years to 2018, with the company trading in 40 countries.

Blue Tree

152% revenue growth
Founded in 2001
Located in the East of England
Food and drink sector

Initially with the aim of making wine tasting more fun and accessible, Blue Tree has since expanded to become one of the leading specialist gifting companies in the UK, providing a fully comprehensive and professional service from initial concept development to delivery into store. The company continually invests in packaging and product innovation, to ensure that gifts are of top-notch quality and at the cutting edge of market trends.

British Medical Auctions

344% revenue growth
Founded in 2015
Located in London
Medical sector

BMA is the UK’s only specialist live and online medical equipment auction house, formed by a team of entrepreneurial professionals with over 40 years’ experience of both the medical equipment and the online and offline auction industry. BMA recently placed #35 in The Sunday Times’ SME Export Track 100 league table and was included in the 100 Top Exporters – Oxfordshire & Thames Valley feature earlier this year.

Castle Air

127% revenue growth
Founded in 1980
Located in South West England
Aviation sector

Ross Bunyard took over Castle Air as MD in 2008 and after building a strong team, started to look for opportunities, which resulted in significant growth with a series of key events. These included the set-up of the company’s Biggin Hill operation, which is now the hub of its charter operations, the addition of AW139 maintenance and operations and the launch of Castle Air Academy, which specialises in advanced training for qualified pilots.

DACO Scientific

100% revenue growth
Founded in 198
Located in South East England
Manufacturing sector

DACO Scientific is a specialist engineering company that has been in the business for over 30 years. The company prides itself on delivering the highest quality specialist hand controllers – with the fastest turnaround times and the most responsive customer service.

Galaxy Insulation & Dry Lining

122% revenue growth
Founded in 2009
Located in Yorkshire
Manufacturing sector

Galaxy Insulation & Dry Lining is always striving to improve and expand. Never content with just sitting still, Galaxy has upgraded both its Sheffield and Leeds depots, moving to new 30,000 square ft warehouses. Continued growth has allowed Galaxy to become a market leading independently owned insulation supplier, which is proud to work with leading dry lining and insulation manufacturers.

Jay-Be

155% revenue growth
Founded in 1960
Located in Yorkshire
Manufacturing sector

Born out of a passion for comfort innovation and manufacturing, Jay-Be has evolved throughout generations to become well known for creating industry leading sleep products which are functional, innovative and environmentally conscious. Jay-Be enjoys being an early adopter of, and embracing the latest sleep technologies, while continually designing new sleep products to set higher industry benchmarks of comfort and quality for good value.

LendingMetrics

462% revenue growth
Founded in 2008
Located in South East England
Finance sector

Credit reference agency LendingMetrics has extensive experience in the field of online lending credit risk solutions and was the first UK credit reference agency to become fully authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. It’s multi-award-winning products include an Auto Decision Platform, which facilitates automated credit decisioning and OpenBankVision which is a fee-free open banking solution for lenders.

Poultex

103% revenue growth
Founded in 2001
Located in the East of England
Retail sector

Poultex is a traditional and online international meat and poultry sales and marketing company responsible for importing and exporting thousands of tonnes of raw and prepared meats and poultry worldwide. The company’s unique online trading system and commitment to invest in quality people has enabled the business to continue to expand globally throughout periods of economic challenge.

RD Content

242% revenue growth
Founded in 2009
Located in London
Advertising sector

More importantly than opening international offices and creating global advertising campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands, RD accredits its success to the determination and commitment to instil the “why” into every employee. This makes its team want to achieve great things with an understanding of why RD exists, which is to find and tell incredible stories. It’s this ability that RD believes truly lies at the heart of its success.

Republic of Media

147% revenue growth
Founded in 2012
Located in North West England
Media sector

Republic of Media provides market leading performance in media planning and buying. The company is proud of being agile and innovative. Part of its culture is to think outside the box and the company consistently produces media firsts and award-winning work. Values guide its culture, which is Progressive, Open, Positive, United and Agile.

Royston Power Generation

101% revenue growth
Founded in 1978
Located in North East England
Industrial sector

Royston Power Generation is a marine engineering business specialising in propulsion systems and innovating in the energy management of vessels. Wholly owned by its directors, the company maintains a commitment to quality and integrity, continually invests in people and processes to ensure high customer satisfaction, and has seen overseas sales increase to 65 per cent of its turnover (£23m).

Sitekit

362% revenue growth
Founded in 1989
Located in Scotland
Tech sector

Sitekit empowers organisations to offer customers secure and trusted digital services. The company believes in collaboration, open standards, decentralised identity and full data ownership by the citizen, to create a global, transparent digital ecosystem. Sitekit creates innovative digital products from start to finish; from workshops through to architecture, system integration and software development, to testing and support.

Square Mile

148% revenue growth
Founded in 2013
Located in London
Finance sector

Square Mile supports financial intermediaries by helping investors achieve their financial goals, based on a research approach focussing on client outcomes. It has grown successfully in a fiercely competitive market that faces many economic, political and regulatory pressures. Square Mile’s focus this year has been on helping clients understand and evidence the importance of responsible and sustainable investing.

Task Consumer Products

266% revenue growth
Founded in 2007
Located in the West Midlands
Manufacturing sector

Task is a family-owned company and one of the largest independent paper converters in the UK, with a manufacturing capacity in excess of 50,000 tonnes per annum. The company has invested in its sixth production line this year to assist continued growth in the sector, which will increase capacity to 80,000 tonnes, allowing Task to continue to develop innovative products and maintain the company’s strong market position.

Techbuyer

115% revenue growth
Founded in 2005
Located in Yorkshire
Tech sector

Techbuyer is a leader in the buying, refurbishing and selling of data centre equipment, plus PCs and laptops. It accredits its growth to the loyalty of its staff, with many of the earliest employees still with the business, along with the launch of the Techbuyer Academy to provide training in the ever-changing market. Techbuyer plans further international expansion, while developing additional models with new and refurbished IT solutions.

Total Tiles

1212% revenue growth
Founded in 2006
Located in the East of England
Manufacturing sector

Total Tiles supplies ceramic and porcelain tiles for walls and floors. It believes that customers should have access to the latest innovative designs at genuinely affordable prices. One of the company’s founding principles is to always look after its people, maintaining a staff retention rate of around 98 per cent. Total Tiles has industry-leading customer reviews and the highest Google reviews for any company in the sector.

Tradmet

135% revenue growth
Founded in 1997
Located in South East England
Finance sector

Tradmet is a physical trader and brokerage business specialising in non-ferrous metal. The company has relied on transacting on a principal to principal basis for growth, using retained earnings to evolve the balance sheet. In 2017, Tradmet Hong Kong Ltd was established to handle growing sales to the region. The company has seen success with turnover and shareholder funds increasing significantly in the last three to four years.

Utelize

177% revenue growth
Founded in 2012
Located in the East of England
Tech sector

Utelize has helped hundreds of IT decision makers avoid the pitfalls that come with negotiating mobile and fixed line telecoms contracts, identifying and recovering many millions in telecoms billing errors, excess spending and wastage. With those savings, Utelize has helped customers to invest in new technologies and services that have streamlined support and transformed business and remote worker productivity.

VSI

225% revenue growth
Founded in 1989
Located in London
Media sector

VSI is one of the world’s most sought-after dubbing, voiceover and subtitling providers. The company runs 24 studios across the world and boasts a strong network of trusted partners, expert linguists, dubbing and voice-over artists, and audio-visual technicians. It is the people and long-standing industry experience that continue to drive VSI’s success. The company is committed to agile ways of working, high-quality results and competent service.

Further reading

20 venture capital firms you need to know about – Growth Business guide