81 Blue Chip Customer Engineering

Revenue: £53.5m (+17%)

Net profit: 13.8% Staff: 229

Following the passing of its founder Brian Meredith the previous October, this Bedford-based IBM maintenance specialist sold up to US counterpart Service Express in February 2021. Claiming to manage 10 per cent of the UK's banking traffic, Blue Chip saw revenue tick up 17 per cent to £53.5m in its year to 30 September 2020. Net profits also doubled to £7.4m. Its takeover handed Harvest Partners-backed Service Express (which also went onto acquire Wetherby-based ICC Group in September) an "international beachhead" and expanded its business by 40 per cent.