71. Axians

Key points

Revenue: £51.4m (-14%)

Net profit: 3.8%

Staff: 83

Part of French engineering monster Vinci, Axians bills itself as a high-performance networking specialist and turns over €2bn globally. Its UK arm, which has a laser focus on service providers and the public sector, enjoyed a "solid year" to 31 December 2017 despite revenues falling 14 per cent. Net profits almost halved to £2m but the Cisco and Juniper Networks partner held up a rise in gross profits as evidence that its pursuit of a more service-driven model is paying off.