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AND THE FASTEST GROWING FIRM IN WALES IS...

....Unit Engineers and Constructors Ltd of Pembroke Dock.

Since starting in 2004, this Pembrokeshire-based company has grown to a turnover of over £17 million in 2008 and its workforce to 167 people.

In 2008, the total turnover of all the firms on this year's Fast Growth 50 list was £565 million as compared to £273 million in 2006. Therefore, the companies have collectively generated £292 million of additional sales in two years at an average growth rate of 107 per cent.

As in the previous ten years of the list, Fast Growth 50 firms have created employment at a time when the economy was at the edge of recession. In the period 2006-2008, the fifty companies will have created around 1900 new jobs, doubling their workforce.

If we take this in context of the entire Welsh economy, government statistics show that number of people employed in the private sector in Wales increased by around 12,000 people in the period 2006-2008.

Therefore, this year's Fast Growth 50 has been responsible for around 15 per cent of all new private sector jobs in Wales during this two year period, a remarkable achievement that shows the importance of supporting indigenous businesses during a recession.

The Fast Growth 50 dinner, attended by nearly 400 guests last Friday, was a resounding success and the speech by Bill Ledwood (above) of Unit describing how he had grown the company from a position of extreme adversity and with little support was a tale of entrepreneurship that every politician and policymaker should listen to.

As one company wrote to me afterwards,

"I just wanted to say thank you to everyone involved for a great Friday night at the FG50 awards on Friday. I was a guest of one of the finalists, having not been to the FG50 since 2005 and hope very much that our organisation will be part of awards themselves in 2 or 3 years time. Thanks again for a really well organised evening in which I met many interesting and inspiring business people. For me the FG50 is a unique and valuable concept that gives small business like mine a real incentive to become profitable and consistent, whilst showcasing success alongside the large players."

Full details of the Wales Fast Growth 50 winners for 2009 can be found at http://www.fastgrowth50.com/.

Comments

Anonymous said…
It's good to see these local firms thriving in this difficult economic times.

We need them: after all, they must generate the wealth to fund the top civil servants' bonuses we read about in today's Western Mail.
November 04, 2009 9:01 am
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