Channel firms storm up Sunday Times Tech Track 100

A total of 18 IT service players have made it into the elite group of UK tech companies with the fastest- growing sales

Channel firms have made up nearly 20 per cent of the 100 firms featured on the annual Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 list.

To qualify for the exclusive list, comprised of technology, media and telecoms (TMT) players, successful firms have to be UK registered, independent, and have a turnover of between £250,000 and £5m in the latest financial year (2012 or 2013), and had to increase sales, but did not need to be in profit.

The final 100, grew by an average of 92 per cent a year to a total of £2.6bn over the past three years, and created more than 8,600 jobs over the same period.

Top of the list was digital marketing provider MVF which saw annual sales growth of 278 per cent over the last three years.

However topping the list of IT suppliers was IT consultancy Mantion House Consulting, which came in at number 14 and saw annual sales growth of 160 per cent for the last three years.

Next on the list at number 19 was IT consultancy R-Com Consulting which saw 130 per cent growth, closely followed by APSU at number 20 with 129 per cent growth.

Next on the list was IT consultancy Invenio Business Solutions at number 24, which saw 118 per cent growth, and number 34 was telecoms service provider Peach Telecom at number 34.

Not far behind was 4SL Consulting at number 37 and coming in at number 40 was mid-market player m-hance which has seen 79 per cent annual sales growth over the past three years. Hot on its heels was Academia at number 41, alwo with 79 per cent sales growth.

In the second half of the list, Block came in at number 54 with 66 per cent growth, with PMGC Technology Group at number 61, jumping more than 20 places from its number 82 position last year. IT consultancy BCSG came in at number 62.

Further down the list at number 71 was IT consultancy Certeco with impressive 52 per cent growth, with GCI Telecom Group and Xceed coming in at numbers 75 and 77 respectively.

Several channel firms also squeezed into the final 10 places on the top 100, with IT consultancies Empowered at number 90, Olive Business Solutions at number 91, AgilityWorks number 94 and financial IT consultancy firm Hatstand at number 99.

Channel-friendly vendors were also represented with Mimecast in at number 79 and Appsense at number 84.

Steve Langan, managing director of Hiscox UK and Ireland, the title sponsor of the league table, said: “The passion, determination and esilience that this year’s Tech Track 100 businesses have demonstrated is no mean feat given the economic context and continued challenging trading conditions. We are pleased to be able to celebrate some of the brave and the bold tech companies that exist up and down the country, and hope that their success now inspires others too.”