64. Ensono

Revenue: £70.5m

Ensono’s UK arm kept things steady in 2023, posting a slight uptick in turnover to £70.5m – up 2.1 per cent on the previous year. Public cloud continues to be the engine room of the business, with revenue from that side of the house climbing 14 per cent to £37.1m and now making up more than half of total sales. That shift, while strategically sound, did hit margins. Gross profit fell 10.3 per cent to £19m, and adjusted EBITDA swung into the red, from a £3.3m profit in 2022 to a £1.9m loss last year.

To get ahead of the margin squeeze, Ensono took a scalpel to its cost base. It shut down its Lennox Wood data centre – chalking that one up as a win for both the bottom line and its sustainability creds – and restructured 35 roles to better align resources with revenue. It’s also leaning more heavily on its Envision platform to help customers make smarter use of their infrastructure across mainframe, cloud and digital services.

Attrition came down sharply to 10 per cent (from 17 per cent in 2022), which Ensono chalks up to flexible working, more focus on career development and a culture-first mindset. Given the fierce competition for tech talent, hanging onto your best people is no small feat.

The firm also got a helping hand from its parent company, which injected £70m in capitalised intercompany loans to beef up the balance sheet and support future growth bets – particularly around cloud and AI.

While 2023 wasn’t without its challenges, the business says it’s now operating on a leaner, more profitable footing with a healthy pipeline of recurring revenue and strong demand for its modernisation and managed services know-how.