15. NCC Group

Key points

Revenue: £233.2m (+8%)

Net profit: 3.1%

Staff: 1,813

NCC's CEO characterised its fiscal year ending 31 May 2018 as a "year of recovery" as the London-listed cybersecurity consultancy continued to overcome the indigestion associated with recent acquisitions (including 2015 purchase Accumuli). Having swung to an ugly £39m net loss in 2017, NCC registered a £7.2m profit this time around, with revenues rising eight per cent. It claims to have now completed a rebalancing of its assurance arm away from single-transaction reselling of third-party products and towards high-value activities. This bears out in its results, with products generating just £9.8m of its £194m assurance revenues.