The search to find the fastest growing indigenous firms in Wales has been launched.
The Wales Fast Growth 50, established in 1999, recognises those high-growth businesses that make a disproportionate contribution to the Welsh economy.
Since the project was established in 1999, the 628 firms that have appeared on the twenty lists are estimated to have created 42,000 jobs and to generate an estimated £24bn of additional turnover, much of which is spent in their local area.
In 2019, the fastest growing firm in Wales was Cardiff-based TV production firm Bad Wolf, which achieved an amazing growth rate of 2668% in growing from a turnover of £1.8m in 2016 to £50.3m in 2018.
Despite the huge economic challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic, founder and director of the Wales Fast Growth 50, Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, believes that Wales will need its leading growth businesses to help show the way out of the recession.
Prof Jones-Evans said: “Over the last eight weeks, I have been in touch with a number of last year’s Fast Growth 50 firms and, as you would expect, they are finding the current situation as difficult as everyone else within the business community but remain optimistic that the economy will bounce back by the end of 2020
.“With businesses struggling, the easy choice would be to cancel this year’s Wales Fast Growth 50. However, our aim has always been to celebrate the best of Welsh entrepreneurship and to recognise the efforts of those businesses that continue to make the difference in good and bad times.
“When we held the Fast Growth 50 awards after the last recession of 2009, the fifty firms featured created 1,400 new jobs and increased their sales by over £300m during a period when 90,000 jobs were lost across the private sector in Wales
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“Those companies acted as an inspiration to all those in business to get the Welsh economy going again and I am sure the same will happen in 2020. Despite the challenges facing all of us, it’s critically important to continue to recognise those firms that make a real difference and at a time when we need creativity, innovation and growth more than ever.”
Stephen Hewitt, founder of Swansea-based Character.com which won the 2019 sustainable growth award for featuring on the Fast Growth 50 for the last five years said: “Despite the challenging times the Fast Growth 50 awards play an important part in a company’s life cycle and I know that it was a real boost to us in our early days to get on the list and find a little recognition and encouragement. Young and growing firms need that more than ever this year."
Since the lockdown was announced in March, a number of Fast Growth 50 firms have been involved in different ways in supporting the fight against Covid-19 over the last two months.
For example, the props team behind its hit TV Series His Dark Materials has been using their 3D printers to make visors for the NHS whilst the costume department has been producing medical scrubs for health workers.
Pontypool-based Freight Logistics Solutions - the fastest growing firm in business to business services - has been helping the NHS by delivering PPE and other equipment to frontline services as well as supporting businesses that are supplying vital equipment to the sector.
Another Valleys-based fast growth firm - medical device manufacturer Flexicare - has expanded its operations to produce lifesaving equipment to support the NHS such as ventilator breathing systems, humidifiers, and resuscitators.
And communications specialist Cowshed developed the WeCare Wales campaign to launch a new jobs portal to help social care employers advertise their high number of vacancies in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
How to qualify
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To be eligible for a place on the Fast Growth 50 list, firms must:
- Have had sales of at least £250,000 in 2017.
- Be an independent and privately held business (not a branch plant or wholly own subsidiary of a non-Welsh based company).
- Be based in Wales.
Rankings will be based on percentage growth of revenues from 2017 to 2019 and the closing date for entries is July 31st 2020.
To enter go to