Bristol and Swindon companies among UK's fastest growing founder-led firms

Published by

Peter Davison

Powersystems in Bristol and Appsbroker in Swindon are among the fastest-growing founder-led private companies in the UK, according to new research by entrepreneurs community Febe.

To appear in the Febe Growth 100, companies must have sales between £3 million and £200 million, have been trading for at least three years, and have turned an operating profit in the latest financial year. The founders must still be involved in the company.

Powersystems is an employee-owned high voltage engineering company, specialising in the design and construction of electrical power infrastructure.

The Yate-based company was founded in 1977 by Midlands Electricity Board employees Derek Earby and Mike Wilsmore. When the firm was bought by an Employee Owned Trust in 2019 Derek and Mike stayed on as non-executive directors. It employs 84 people.

To date, Powersystems has connected over six gigawatts of renewable technology and decarbonisation energy systems to the UK grid.

Driven by an increase in the number of renewable energy schemes, particularly wind farms being built, Powersystems’ revenue grew to £47.1m in 2021.

Swindon-based software company Appsbroker is Google’s largest Premier Partner in Europe, delivering cloud services to household names from retail to finance to automotive.

Founded in 2006 by CEO Mike Conner, the company employs nearly 200 people at its headquarters in Old Town, Swindon and at offices in London, Germany, and Romania.

FEBE founder Charlotte Quince, said: “We’re so excited to publish this year’s Growth 100.

"So many people think that business founders just ‘get lucky’ or think of an idea one day and are successful the next.

"But we know that the journey to success is anything but smooth.

"The Growth 100 celebrates those who have embraced the entrepreneurial roller coaster and who are now thriving as some of the fastest growing brands in the country.”

Former Dragon’s Den Dragon and FEBE Growth 100 ambassador, Jenny Campbell added: “I’m very proud to be part of something that celebrates and supports the very best British entrepreneurs and their companies.

"FEBE Growth 100 focuses on true entrepreneurialism. Founders are unique: their experiences, their vision and their resilience are unlike anything else.

"So, we want to celebrate these ‘dare to doers’ and shine a light on the incredible accomplishments of some of the finest and fastest-growing companies in the country.”

Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country. An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts. Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.