Member Article

Warwickshire’s private businesses grow profits by 18.3%

Warwickshire’s leading privately-owned businesses are continuing to rise above recent economic challenges, with entrepreneurship and innovation driving year-on-year profits up 18.3%, according to new data from Grant Thornton UK LLP. 

The firm’s second annual Warwickshire Limited report, a detailed study of the region’s Top 100 private companies, reveals that EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) collectively stepped up to £553m in the year under review. Sales increased by 4.9% to £10 bn.

The private businesses in the study operate across a broad range of sectors, with a range of turnovers that spans £7.8m to £3.9bn, and employ 40,394 people in Warwickshire. They are led by Rigby Group, the largest privately-owned IT solutions provider in Europe, which continues to thrive from its base in Stratford-Upon-Avon. 

“Multi-generational family businesses like Rigby Group are unique things: personal; value-driven, creative, entrepreneurial; community centric,” Steve Rigby, Co-CEO of The Rigby Group, told the report’s authors. “These qualities combined with our long-term thinking and five decades of experience as operators and investors make us well placed to manage any challenges.” 

The technology, media, and telecommunications sector that Rigby Group is part of contributes most to the regional economy, generating £4.5bn of total revenue. Other high performing sectors include automotive and industrials, which accounts for 39 of the Top 100 companies, followed by consumer (20) and business support services (18). 

The report also highlights 15 new Warwickshire-based entrants into the Top 100, including baby products maker Green Sheep Group and vacation rental platform Lodgify.

Nick Gillott, Partner and Head of Corporate Finance at Grant Thornton in the Midlands, said: “There’s a quality of leadership and a spirit of entrepreneurship behind these businesses that bodes really well for the future. Warwickshire’s economy has found strength in diversity and has a broad base of private companies thriving in sectors where there is dynamic growth. We know there is more to come, especially given Warwickshire’s emergence as a global hub for the video games industry. There is a vibrant ecosystem of game development companies in the ‘Silicon Spa’ area, which employs 15 per cent of the UK’s games development talent. There’s also a very evident commitment to innovation reflected in the county’s involvement in the new Coventry and Warwick Gigapark Investment Zone. It’s an exciting time to be working here and we congratulate the businesses which feature in the latest Top 100.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Robson .