The West Country is now home to nearly 3,000 fast growing companies which employ more than 350,000 people and turnover £45.2billion annually, new research shows.
Data from the ScaleUp Institute reveals that across the region’s six Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) zones, stretching from Gloucester to the Isles of Scilly, 2,745 fast-growth enterprises are providing jobs for 352,816 workers.
The Institute said such firms can help the area overcome the economic challenges created by COVID-19 and form part of an innovative and productive scale-up community across the 海角视频 - businesses that have grown their turnover or employment by 20% a year over a three-year period.
But within the data, there are large variations. The West of England has the highest number of firms and workers in the rapid-growth sector.
But it is Swindon and Wiltshire where the most wealth is generated – a whopping £18,785,808,384 (£18.78billion) of annual turnover, dwarfing other regions and even beating the West of England for earning power.
Although the report does not delve into an explanation for this, Swindon scored highly in the 2019 Good Growth for Cities index, compiled by PwC, which ranked the town at eighth in the 海角视频, beating the likes of Leicester, Cambridge and Plymouth.
The proliferation of pharmaceutical and advanced manufacturing businesses operating in the area were cited as a potential reason for its “mini boom”.
It is even more impressive that the vast earning figures come from just 315 Swindon and Wiltshire scale-ups, the second lowest total in the West Country, only ahead of Cornwall. They employ 31,165 people though, but still only the fourth highest total.
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That honour goes to the West of England, which includes Bristol, now home to 645 fast growing companies employing a total of 183,307 staff and generating £14.5billion in turnover, the second highest income.
Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly comes lowest across all three indices, with 280 fast growing companies employing a total of 13,272 staff and generating £1billion in turnover.
Dorset has 365 fast-growth firms, with a workforce of 26,692 staff and generating £3.1billion in revenue, while Gloucestershire houses 400 rapidly evolving scale-ups, providing jobs for 41,041 staff and generating £3.4billlion.
The Heart of the South West area, which encompasses Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay, is home to 740 fast growing companies, employing a total of 57,339 staff and generating £4.4billion in turnover.
But with the headwinds created by COVID-19 and Brexit these scaleups need effective support to remove a range of barriers that could challenge their long-term growth and the role they can play in helping the Heart of the South West flourish economically, the ScaleUp Institute argues.
Its chief executive Irene Graham said: “Scaleups have remained resilient in the face of the COVID-19 emergency and continue to be critical to local economies with many still planning to grow.
“But this is no time for complacency, with scale-ups citing challenges on accessing markets and appropriate finance dialling up, as they face into the uncertainties that COVID and Brexit create.
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“We must double down on efforts to create a supportive environment or risk losing the benefit of their enterprise and productivity.
“And that would be a huge loss as scale-ups are 54% more productive than other businesses, twice as likely to offer apprenticeships, are more than twice as innovative, and, significantly, they create high quality jobs.”
“Now is the time to also bring on those firms that are in the ‘pipeline’ - whose performance puts them just outside the definition of a scale-up."
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She said the bosses of such firms particularly highlight access to talent, access to 海角视频 markets, and access to infrastructure/premises and broadband as key issues.
The ScaleUp Institute has also carried out research with Arup to understand what factors most influenced the local growth of scale-ups. Using a range of variables and regression analysis this research has shown three key local factors make a vital difference: access to equity finance (growth capital), access to skills and the existence of sectoral clusters.
Stu Anderson, operations director of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth and Skills Hub., said: “It’s fantastic news to hear that we have so many fast-growing businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, but now more than ever those companies will need support to continue their positive trajectory.
“The Growth & Skills Hub takes the time and effort out of finding the right support and skills development opportunities, so our local entrepreneurs can focus on taking their business to the next level.”
Phil Smith, managing director of Business West, one of the largest Chambers of Commerce in the 海角视频 and a key pillar of the West of England scale-up ecosystem, said: “The ScaleUp Institute annual spotlight clearly evidences the region’s huge entrepreneurial energy, that all of us who live and work here know exists and highlights some of the key issues we still need to collectively tackle.”