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GT Group named as North East’s sole representative in Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table

Published this weekend, the 16th annual Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits over the last three years.

Appearing on the league table for the second time in three years, Sunderland-based GT Group is the sole representative from the North East.

Run by founder, chairman and chief executive Geoff Turnbull, it provides engineering services to the automotive, oil, gas and petrochemical industries, and specialises in fluid transfer, exhaust gas control and materials handling.

It also makes hydraulic seals and rubber mouldings for customers that include JCB, John Deere and BP. Tighter worldwide emission controls helped profits grow by an average of 46% a year over the last three years to £5.1m in 2013, placing the company at number 86.

GT Group features alongside businesses from around the UK, including bicycle manufacturer Brompton Bicycles, travelsearch engine Skyscanner, biscuit and cake maker Tunnock’s, and home accessories maker The White Company.

The Profit Track 100 is sponsored by BDO, Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking and UBS Wealth Management. It is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm.

The 100 companies on this year’s league table grew their profits over the last three years by an average of 68% a year to combined profits of £1.4bn in their latest available accounts. Together they employed 76,200 staff, having added 24,500 employees to their workforce during this time, some as a result of acquisitions.

Just under half of the companies on the league table are headquartered in London (26) and the Southeast (19). Of the remainder, 11 are based in the Northwest, 11 in Scotland, 10 in Yorkshire, 6 in the Southwest, 6 in the West Midlands, 3 in the East of England, 3 in Northern Ireland, 3 in Wales, 1 in the East Midlands, and 1 in the Northeast.

Terry Jones, partner at BDO, the title sponsor of the league table, commented on the region’s success story: “Medium-sized businesses in the northeast and across the UK are thriving. Our newly-named ‘Brittelstand’ has outgrown the German ‘Mittelstand’ with mid-market businesses across all sectors seizing the opportunities a growing economy presents.

“The northeast’s most profitable companies have remained focused on sustainable growth by making intelligent investment decisions in innovation and overseas expansion.”

The full league table will be published in a six-page broadsheet supplement with the business section of The Sunday Times on 12 April, both in print and in the digital edition, and on www.fasttrack.co.uk.

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