14 NCC Group

Revenue: £270.5m (+3%)

Net profit: 3.7% Staff: 1,897

The cybersecurity market is "a very exciting one" in the wake of the pandemic, with NCC "well positioned to capture the accelerated market growth", its CEO Adam Palser proclaimed following its "strong" trading performance in its year to 31 May 2021. Its revenues rose three per cent to £270.5m (with the UK and APAC generating £127m of the total), while net profits hit £10m. NCC's Assurance arm generated £172.2m, £56.2m and £5.5m of revenues from professional services, managed services and product sales, respectively.

Covid impact

Rapid adoption of cloud in the wake of the pandemic has left more organisations vulnerable to disruption, fines and failure, meaning NCC and firms like it will be in hot demand, Palser claimed. It hired 200 front-line technical specialists during the year.