VADition storms Fast Track 100

196 per cent annualised growth over three years makes distributor the UK's third-fastest growing private firm

Distributor VADition has been crowned the third-fastest-growing privately held firm in the UK.

The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 ranks companies based on their compound annual growth in sales over their latest three financial years.

In the 2010 edition, only online phone retailer Buymobilephones.net and subsea construction firm Subocean Group topped VADition’s 196 per cent annualised growth rate.

The distributor also finished top of the pile in the south-east.

VADition was set up in 2006 by serial entrepreneurs Neil Ledger (pictured) and Ian Morris. In 2007 – the base year of the research – the distributor had an annualised turnover of £906,000. This rose to £23.4m in its latest financial year.

Morris said: “Too many people use the term ‘value add’ too easily and too loosely. To us, value is an asset we have and others don’t – despite how much they want it.”

To be considered for Fast Track, entrants’ annualised sales must exceed £250,000 in the base year and £5m in the latest year. They are also required to have grown in their latest year and to have forecast further growth.

Companies featuring in the top 100 grew combined sales from £727m to £4bn over the three years, creating more than 16,000 jobs in the process.

Hampshire-based VADition, whose key vendors include Palo Alto, Fortinet, F5 Networks and Isilon, now has 35 staff.