Partner Article

Northern SMEs witness high levels of growth

Despite difficult economic conditions, turmoil on the stock markets and the worth recession in 60 years, mid-sized SMEs based in the North of England have demonstrated high levels of growth.

In a report by Experian commissioned by the British Growth Fund. high growth companies with turnovers of between £2.5 million and £100 million have all expanded by a third in the last three years, and are demonstrative of the underlying resilience of UK entrepreneurialism.

635 of these companies were identified in the North, of which 316 are located in the North West, 231 in Yorkshire and Humberside and 88 in the North East.

Commenting on the data, Andy Gregory, BGF’s Regional Director for North of England, said: “This data highlights that despite challenging market conditions, there is a steady base of UK SMEs that continue to thrive across the UK.

“It demonstrates the resilience of the group and the underlying quality of UK entrepreneurship. This is good news for the overall UK economy as these companies play a significant role in job creation and innovation and are a critical part of the economic recovery.”

The BGF “Growth Companies Barometer” identifies a total of 25,533 UK companies with turnovers of £2.5m - £100m, 4013 of which are based in the North of England. More than half of these are based in the North West, with the remaining 1517 based in Yorkshire and Humberside and 540 based in the North East.

The Barometer tracks the performance of these SMEs over a ten year time period. Although the size of this population has remained consistent since 2000, the proportion of high growth companies in the North of England has declined by 9% in the last three years.

Gregory continued: “As growth capital investors in high growth companies, we are encouraged by the fact that there is a clear addressable market. However we are also mindful that there is room for improvement.

“The last two years have seen in the region of 70 investments of growth capital made into UK companies of this nature. Clearly there is scope for much more and we would certainly hope to make about 25 investments this year, and 30-40 investments per year in the longer term.”

The data was commissioned with the aim of creating a new additional measure of economic performance of mid-sized SMEs, with the aim of helping business owners and entrepreneurs benchmark their performances.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .