Hot 100 2013 – 12: World First UK

The basics

Company name: World First UK
What they do: Forex services
Headquarters: London
The Boss: Jonathan Quin and Nick Robinson

The financials

Latest turnover (£,000): 2,962,368
Four-year compound sales growth (%): 57
Latest Ebitda (£,000): 4,483

The details

Foreign exchange broker World First has had another good year, adding £1bn to the company’s turnover to reach nearly £3bn of sales. World First was born in the basement of a house in Brixton, with Jonathan Quin and Nick Robinson – former Citibank-ers – at the helm. Since then, the 150-employee company has won a number of awards, including a Queen’s Award for Enterprise and a special commendation at the 2012 Growing Business Awards.

Jonathan Quin says the business tries to grow a minimum of 26 per cent per year, so that the company doubles in size every three years.

World First has world plans: 17 per cent of turnover comes from international business, but Quin wants to see this rise to 25 per cent. The business is on the verge of being licensed in Singapore and it is working on getting licensed in all 50 American states. “It’s a massive amount of work but it’s a huge opportunity,” he says.

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• The Hot 100 2013 is produced in association with Investec, Jordans, Cass Business School and Your Business Your Future.
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