
No corner of the globe is left untouched by our finalists for the “Export Champion” category at the Growing Business Awards, in association with Lloyds Bank. Some of our candidates have been exporters from day one; others are moving decisively into the world’s growth markets. Britain is lucky to have such companies, truly champions of brand Britain…
Alaric Systems
Alaric is a £9m-turnover, 90-employee London-based provider of fraud prevention and payment systems that generates 90 per cent of its business outside the UK. Overseas offices include: Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Irving (US), and Melbourne (Australia). A further significant US investment is expected soon. Led by CEO, Mike Alford, Alaric’s revenues for 2012/2011 are up 50 per cent on the previous year; forecasts are for 35-40 per cent revenue growth this year. Private equity-backed, Alaric has partnerships across the world and two major product suites: Authentic and Fractals.Fever-Tree
JacTravel
JacTravel is an independent, privately owned company specialising in the provision of 7,000 hand-picked hotels online, and inbound services to the travel trade. With latest turnover of £103.5m, and showing ebitda of £8.1m, JacTravel is growing fast in the world’s growth markets, including Brazil, Korea and the Middle East; in fact, 80 per cent of the company’s clients are based overseas. In the past three years, the business has increased sales in Asia by 45 per cent to £8.3m and its client base to 20-plus new clients. As the company’s submission says, “pure scaleability is shown by the fact the ebitda as a percentage of turnover has growtn from 33.4 per cent to 154.7 per cent for 2010/11. Overall growth is being fuelled by new overseas trade accounts and strong growth in online bookings.Microlease
MTL Group
Up until recently, MTL Group had an excellent profile with its UK customer base in the UK but was little known overseas. So the Rotherham-based steel engineering specialist set about a structured programme to build its international profile. It’s just the kind of initiative that the UK needs from its businesses. The programme involved parallel approaches such as: web marketing, visits to potential markets, participating in trade missions, exhibitions, identification of overseas agents, and recruitment of new people skilled in building international business. Today MTL is exporting to the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America where, after an 11-day visit, the firm picked up a £500,000 order.Tyrrells Potato Crisps
Tyrrells celebrated its tenth birthday at Tyrrells Court Farm this summer, having grown from humble beginnings in 2002 into the fastest-growing hand-cooked brand in the UK premium crisp category. The firm, led by CEO David Milne, is seeing significant sales growth in Germany, the US, Canada, the Netherlands and, impressively, France, where Tyrrells is creating a premium crisp sector. Right now, international sales account for 15 per cent of total sales, though these are forecast to reach 25 per cent by the end of 2013. With its eccentric proposition, the brand is increasingly seen as “a little touch of England” across the world. To find out more about the Growing Business Awards, in association with Lloyds Bank, and in partnership with Lloyds Private Banking, Land Rover, Cavendish, Cass Business School, Visa, Spring Law, McLaren, Bdaily, visit our awards website.Share this story