Best businesses of the year announced by BVCA

Tonight the British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is hosting its annual Management Team Awards, produced in association with Grant Thornton UK LLP, at a Gala Dinner in London to recognise and reward the best performing businesses backed by private equity and venture capital in the UK.
Twenty-six companies and eight chief executives will compete for five prizes following a year long process of identifying the most outstanding companies in the country. Taking place at the London Hilton on Park Lane, all the finalists were winners of the regional finals which took place throughout the year and across the country. Private equity and venture capital is a national investor and tonight is our platform for showcasing our industry in action.
The full list of winners to be presented tonight are:
Winner |
Backed by |
Region |
Category |
Quotient Clinical | Bridgepoint Development Capital (until December 2015), GHO Capital |
Midlands | Large Company Team |
Citation | ECI Partners (until February 2016), HgCapital | North West | Mid-Market Team |
UKCloud (formerly Skyscape Cloud Services) | Business Growth Fund | South West | Venture or Growth Company Team |
Forrest | Palatine Private Equity | North West | Social Responsibility Team |
Simon Cooper, On the Beach | Inflexion Private Equity | North West | CEO |
Bill Priestley, Chief Investment Partner at Epiris, and Chair of the MTA national judging panel, said:
“This year’s BVCA Management Team Awards produced an extremely strong set of regional winners which shows just how well private equity and venture capital-backed businesses have performed across the entire country despite some economic uncertainty.
As a result, the national winners are of an extremely high-calibre. All of them are success stories in their own right and act as a further demonstration of the impact our industry is having on the UK economy. Private equity and venture capital is all about supporting enterprise and driving innovation, and the management team of each of these businesses prove just how well this can work.
Congratulations to all - a set of highly-deserving winners and each should be very proud of their achievement.”
Winner profiles:
Large Company Team
Quotient Clinical
Backed by Bridgepoint Development Capital and now GHO Capital
Quotient Clinical is one of the UK’s leading drug development companies, providing outsourcing services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
Through its Translational Pharmaceutics® platform, the Nottingham-based business integrates development, manufacturing and clinical testing to reduce the time and cost of bringing a drug to market.
Bridgepoint Development Capital acquired Quotient in December 2013 and helped the management team to grow its capability, market share and employee numbers, as well as refine its international strategy. GHO Capital acquired the business in December 2015 and it now employs over 330 people and has continued to increase revenues and EBITDA.
Judges’ comment: “The Quotient team under Mark Egerton are building a very exciting clinical services business, recognised in their sector by customers and competitors for developing a unique Translational Pharmaceutics solution others are unable to match. We admire their courage in investing heavily in this new approach and recognise the rewards they are achieving through rapid growth.”
Mid-Market Team
Citation
Backed by ECI Partners and now HgCapital
Citation is a specialist outsourcing and services provider for the UK SME market, helping over 16,00 clients across a range of different areas including HR and employment law, health & safety, ISO service accreditation and staff training.
Headquartered in Wilmslow, Cheshire, Citation employs over 400 people and since ECI’s investment in 2012 and the recruitment of CEO Chris Morris, the business has grown its customer base three-fold, doubled its headcount, doubled its revenues, invested in a new online customer platform and made two acquisitions.
HgCapital acquired the company in February this year.
Judges’ comment: “Chris Morris and his team did an outstanding job in transforming this business over a two-year period from their arrival in 2013. The judges were particularly impressed with the cultural transformation, which saw the company reduce staff turnover in their contact centre from 130% to 9% pa and the company apply for and get in to the ‘Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For’. At the same time growth in revenues and value-creating acquisitions enabled ECI to achieve a great exit in 2015.”
Venture or Growth Company Team
UKCloud
Backed by Business Growth Fund
UKCloud, formerly Skyscape Cloud Services, provides cloud services for the UK public sector, and counts the likes of the Home Office, HMRC and the Ministry of Defence as clients.
Found in 2011 it has quickly established itself as one of the leading companies in its field and in September was ranked number 1 in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech 100 after recording average three year sales growth of 262.66%.
Based in Farnborough, Hampshire, UKCloud received £4 million of investment from Business Growth Fund in May 2014. This has been used to increase sales and expand the company’s reach into other areas of the public sector such as local government, research and higher education.
Judges’ comments: “Skyscape was founded in 2011 and in a short time has achieved an astonishing level of credibility and trust in its assured cloud solution, with some of the largest public sector organisations as clients. The judges admired the management team’s skill in taking a leading position in a market which had been dominated by very large, powerful competitors.”
Social Responsibility Team
Forrest
Backed by Palatine Private Equity
Bolton-based contractor Forrest is one of the most innovative construction companies in the UK, combining traditional new build and redevelopment services with a strong focus on sustainability.
Palatine acquired Forrest in 2013 and it has experienced strong growth in the years since and expanded its services across the North of England.
It has also demonstrated a very strong and consistent commitment to environmental, social and governance issues, reducing emissions and waste through various activities, including a ‘green’ vehicle fleet, reuse of material and environmentally sourcing and waste management to reduce landfill.
In 2015 Forest broke its record of charitable fundraising and donated over 1,700 hours to support good causes.
Judges’ comments: “The judges were impressed with a commitment to social and community engagement led from the board but that goes right through the company, with 95% of staff involved in community activities. The judges also commended the strong link with Footprints Foundation in South Africa: a team from Forrest went out to build a new orphanage for them in 2015.”
CEO
Simon Cooper, On the Beach
Inflexion Private Equity
Simon Cooper founded On the Beach in 2003 far away from the sun and the sand. A terrace house in Manchester to be precise. Using Teletext to generate leads and with seed investment from his dad, Simon saw an opportunity to disrupt the travel agency business by allowing people to build their own holiday from flight and hotel combinations, as opposed to being offered pre-packaged holidays.
Today On the Beach is one of the leading online holiday retailers in the UK. Simon secured his first private equity investment in 2007 from Livingbridge which resulted in the appointment of an experience management team, a new operating platform and the IT was brought in-house. Despite the challenging economic conditions of the time, when Livingbridge sold its stake six years later, the company had increased its sales by more than 3.5x.
Inflexion backed a secondary buyout in 2013. On the Beach has now delivered five years of consistent growth, increased website visitors, expanded into Sweden, launched its first full national TV advertising campaign and more than doubled its staff numbers. And, to top it off, the company floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 with a market capitalisation of £240 million.
Judges’ comments: “The judges applauded Simon’s achievements in taking the business from his back bedroom and building it to the point where it achieved a £240 million float in 2015, taking in relationships with two private equity houses on the way. Simon has created and directed a truly impressive business, built on great technology which delivers disruptive flexibility and value to customers incredibly efficiently.”
Notes to editor
- The BVCA Management Team Awards, produced in association with Grant Thornton UK LLP, are the only awards to celebrate the achievements of private equity and venture capital-backed management teams. The awards are initially judged regionally, with the winners of the seven regions announced throughout the year. All regional winners are then automatically entered into the national final. .
- The national awards are being presented tonight at the BVCA Annual Gala Dinner at the London Hilton on Park Lane.
- The national judging panel consisted of: Bill Priestley, Epiris (judging Chair); Mark Advani, Livingbridge; Jonathan Diggines, Enterprise Ventures; Robert Easton, The Carlyle Group; Tim Farazmand, LDC; Andrew Ferguson, Maven Capital Partners; Jeremy Hand, Lyceum Capital; Hugh Lenon, Phoenix Equity Partners; Ross Marshall, Dunedin; Mo Merali, Grant Thornton; Paul Oldham, Business Growth Fund; Bill Priestley, Electra Partners; David Staziker, Finance Wales.
- The British Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (BVCA) is the industry body for the UK private equity and venture capital industry. The BVCA has over 600 member firms, representing the vast majority of UK-based private equity and venture capital firms and their advisers.
- Grant Thornton is one of the world’s leading organisations of independent assurance, tax and advisory firms. These firms help dynamic organisations unlock their potential for growth by providing meaningful, forward-thinking advice. Proactive teams, led by approachable partners in these firms, use insights, experience and instinct to understand complex issues for privately owned, publicly listed and public sector clients and help them to find solutions. More than 35,000 Grant Thornton people, across over 100 countries, are focused on making a difference to clients, colleagues and the communities in which we live and work. The UK Grant Thornton member firm provides services to over 40,000 privately held businesses, public interest entities and individuals. It is led by more than 185 partners and employs more than 4,200 of the profession's brightest minds. Find out more at www.grant-thornton.co.uk