A Cornish helicopter firm and a leading online sex toy business are both on cloud nine after soaring into the league table of 海角视频 firms with the fastest growing exports.
Liskeard’s Castle Air is hovering at number 65 in The 12th annual , which ranks Britain’s mid-market private companies with the fastest-growing exports, after reaping £10.4million in international sales.
It is joined on the list by another newcomer,, which saw overseas sales of its sex toys and lingerie climax at £56.3million before the Covid pandemic started.
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The company, which won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2016, has enjoyed a further sales hike during lockdown, with up to 200% growth in every territory worldwide.
Castle Air, which also operates out of Biggin Hill and Gloucestershire airports, charters helicopters from its fleet of luxury Agusta Westland A109 turbine choppers, and counts X Factor creator Simon Cowell among customers. The business also sells aircraft.
It has seen a 56% hike in its international sales during the past two years, and they now account for about a third of overall turnover, which was £29.5million in 2019. The company employs 84 people and says it has the largest stock of parts for the Agusta 109 helicopter in the world.
, set up in 2002, employs 340 people at its Bath base, having taken on another 70 when the pandemic lockdowns caused a buying frenzy for its products.
The company is ranked at number 194 in the list after seeing 19% export growth in the past two years. Overall sales were at £124.3millon in March 2020. The company owns the exclusive rights to produce Fifty Shades of Grey sex toys.
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Also, entering the list for the first time, at number 172, is Somerset’s Redlynch Agricultural Engineering, which sells combine harvesters, seed planters and tractors to trade customers.
It has seen a 23%, two-year growth in overseas sales to £1.8million, with overall turnover at £32.2million. The Burton-headquartered company employs 36 people.
And a fourth new entrant is Gloucester’s ProCook cookware manufacturer and retailer, which enjoyed 49% overseas growth in the two years to March 2020, with £2.5million in exports, from £39million total sales. The firm, which sells cookware and kitchen accessories online to customers across Europe, has 550 employees.
However, the region’s top-ranked company is Gloucester’s Spectrum Medical, at number 25, which makes life support systems that have treated critically ill Covid-19 patients in the USA and Germany.
Specialist cardiac hospitals in more than 60 countries use its devices, helping international sales reach £32.8million in 2019, on total sales of £33.1million. Its international sales grew an average of 93% a year during its last two years, and it has risen 56 places in the 2021 list. It has 173 workers.
Portishead is home to chemicals and gases distributor A-Gas – which supplies the refrigerants used to air-condition buildings and chill food. Its international sales grew at 25% a year, reaching £205.7million in 2019, on total sales of £247.4million.
In November 2020 it expanded in Italy, acquiring refrigerant reclamation specialist Safety Hi-Tech for an undisclosed sum. It has 665 staff, but despite its sales growth has fallen 21 places in the list.
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Bristol tour operator Inside Travel Group saw a 32% growth in foreign sales to £22.8million, but fell 13 places to number 123. It had overall sales of £49.4million, and 194 staff, pre-pandemic, when it was helping 12,000 people explore Asia each year.
Combined, the businesses grew their international sales by an average of 43% a year over the past two years to a total of £332million. All are profitable and together they employ more than 2,000 people. But the figures largely relate to financial periods before Covid-19 struck.
The companies in the South West appear alongside well-known British brands based across the 海角视频 including Sweaty Betty, the women’s activewear brand that sells to 195 countries; BrewDog, which was valued at £1billion in 2017 and now has 100 bars worldwide, and is due to open in Plymouth and Exeter in 2021; and Brompton, the bicycle manufacturer, which ships to 47 markets.
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International Track 200 star alumni include Skyscanner, Fever-Tree and Dr Martens – which featured on the league table in 2013 with exports of £100million, and floatedin 2021 valued at £3.7billion.
The league table programme is sponsored by HSBC and DHL Express, and compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm.
Amanda Murphy, head of commercial banking, HSBC 海角视频, said: “After a challenging start to 2021, all eyes are on the companies that will drive a return to growth in 2021.
“We are confident that the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of businesses such as those in the South West listed on International Track 200 will carry them forward.
“These companies show the strength, ambition and resilience of businesses across the 海角视频 and are the sort of businesses we are proud to support every day.”
The full league table is published as an eight-page supplement with the business section of The Sunday Times on February 21, both in print and in the tablet edition, and on www.fasttrack.co.uk.