Who are the UK channel partners adding headcount at the fastest rate, and what is their recipe for success?
That’s what IT Channel Oxygen set out to answer in our inaugural Fast-Growth 50 report, which profiles 50 small and medium-sized MSPs, VARs and consultancies undergoing lightning employee growth.
Just like the UK is said to be “a nation of shopkeepers”, so too are SMBs the lifeblood of the UK IT channel.
That’s why Fast-Growth 50 is dedicated to the hundreds and thousands of smaller channel partners not large enough to feature in Oxygen 250.
Compiled in partnership with Giacom, the report highlights the 50 fastest-growing among them, based on the average monthly headcount figure displayed in their four most-recent sets of accounts.
What are their common traits?
A disproportionately large number (nine) of the 50 are MSSPs or cybersecurity consultancies. Eight, meanwhile, are private equity backed.
Some are run by siblings or close friends.
While some are focused on being the best in one technology area, others have grown by expanding the basket of solutions they sell into their client base.
This includes Croft Communications, which has over the last four years transformed itself from a 16-employee mobile telecoms reseller to a broader managed services provider with a headcount approaching 200.
“IT is something like 40% our revenues now, but we would like it to be nearer 60%. So we’re making another series of acquisitions this year, which will be heavily focused on IT MSP-type businesses,” CEO Mark Bramley told IT Channel Oxygen.
“The rationale isn’t rocket science. If somebody trusts you with their IT infrastructure, it’s a lower ask to get them to trust you with their telephony, as opposed to the opposite.”
The report also explores their humble beginnings and future plans. Did you know, for example, that the name of one company in the report was inspired by an item on a menu in a Portuguese seafood restaurant?
Our Fast-Growth 50 also includes a cybersecurity advisory firm set up by two former Softcat execs, and an AWS partner that now employs 95 staff (despite its two founders only scratching out the concept on a beer mat six years ago).
When it comes to where they see their growth coming from in 2024, Microsoft Copilot and AI were name-checked most often, with cybersecurity a close second.
The top 50 were drawn from 431 firms IT Channel Oxygen tracks with headcount of 15 or over and who did not feature in Oxygen 250. This being the inaugural edition, some fast-growing companies will, inevitably, have been missed off our radar. We will, of course, endeavour to improve the data year on year.
We hope that you enjoy perusing the findings as much as we enjoyed compiling them.
Read the report to find out who made the cut…
