Thames Valley: Eleven mid-market companies make list for top international sales

The seventh annual Sunday Times HSBC International Track 200 league table, which ranks Britain’s mid-market private companies with the fastest-growing international sales, this year includes 11 companies from the Thames Valley.

Star performer in the region, and all the more impressive in that it is the first time it has featured in the table, is Cennox, the global ATM services group based in Camberley, which has burst into the top three on the list. Cennox bought the Californian firm PSSI International for an undisclosed sum last year, helping its international sales to grow by 199% a year over two years to £17.7 million in 2015. It now boasts cash machine engineers in every American state except Hawaii.

Second only to Cennox among all the Thames Valley companies to make the league-table was another spectacular newcomer to the list, International Group, the healthcare and leisure group based in Gerrards Cross. It achieved sixth place on the table with an annual international sales growth over the two years of 117% and international sales in 2015 worth £12.38m. It builds and manages hospitals globally, and its leap was largely the due to its having partnered with Wang Jialin, China’s richest man.

Third is Alfa Technical Industries, the chemicals distributor based in Binfield, Berkshire, which registered a two-year growth figure in international sales of 111%, earning it 17th place. It supplies speciality chemicals across Ireland and the Nordic countries and its sales abroad in 2015 amounted to £8.1m.

Abingdon-based healthcare products developer Ability Matters takes fourth position for the region. Its main focus is on lightweight upper and lower-limb prosthetics and orthopaedic footwear. Its annual international sales growth over the past two years was 59% which enabled it to rank 56^th on the list with international sales in 2015 of £6.96m.

Two towns in the region, Banbury and Reading, each had two companies in the table. Heading these in terms of growth in international sales over the past two years is Banbury-based The Tibbetts Group, the automotive parts supplier. It achieved a 41% sales growth over the two years and international sales of over £27.5m. The other Banbury-based company to make the list is another automotive parts supplier First Line, which registered a very healthy 20% grown in international sales, with an international sales figure in 2015 of £8.25m despite the fact that its main market is the UK.

By contrast the two Reading-based companies to feature are services providers. IT services provider Halian registered an international-sales growth figure of 20%. Its international clients include the European Commission and Johnson and Johnson, and its 2015 international sales figure was just below £21.7m.

Just below it with a 19% growth, but shading it in terms of the value of its international sales in 2015, is hospitality services provider WSH. The company’s £31.9 worth of international sales in 2015 made it the highest export-earner among all the listed mid-market companies in the Thames Valley.  Its catering operations extend through Ireland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Smallest of the regional companies to feature is Pacific Produce based at North Weston near Thame, which has only 12 members of staff. It was created in 2010 to provide growers with an efficient route to market, and most of its international sales come from distributing fruit and vegetables grown in Latin America to European customers. The company registered a 19% growth and an international sales figure in 2015 of £5m.

Last but not least of the region’s companies to make the list, and the only mid-market Thames Valley manufacturing company to feature, is DeSoutter Medical, the surgical instruments manufacture based at Aston Clinton. Its growth in international sales was a very healthy 22%, pushing its international sales in 2015 to just under £17.5m.

When the 11 Thames Valley companies are added to the other 19 companies in the South East region, it is notable that the international sales of the listed companies across this whole region have grown by an average of 55% a year over two years to a total of £1.7 billion.

The Sunday Times league table is sponsored by HSBC and compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm.