The Financial Times has published the annual list of Europe’s fastest-growing independent companies and Ireland has improved compared with 2020 when it had no company on the list.
However, the top Irish firm at rank 74, Longboat Clinical, a pharmaceutical company, has become American as it was sold to Advarra, a Maryland, US company, last December. Advarra was founded in 1993.
The two other firms are East Coast Bake, a food company, at 97th growth rank, and Snigel Web Services, a technology company founded by two former Google employees, who got a rank of 371.
Longboat Clinical grew its revenues in 2016-2019 from €358,000 to €5.8m; East Coast Bake expanded revenues from €268,000 to €3.8m while Snigel Web Services had an impressive euro growth from €3.8m to €20.6m.
Criteria for inclusion
The FT says to be included in the list of Europe’s fastest-growing companies, a company had to meet the following criteria:
- Revenue of at least €100,000 generated in 2016 (or currency value equivalent according to the average of the actual fiscal year);
- Revenue of at least €1.5m generated in 2019 (or currency value equivalent according to the average of the actual fiscal year);
- The company is independent (the company is not a subsidiary or branch office of any kind);
- The revenue growth between 2016 and 2019 was primarily organic (ie “internally” stimulated);
- If a company is listed on a stock exchange, its share price has not fallen 50% or more since 2019.
Companies from these countries were eligible to participate: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK.
Calculation of growth rates
Statista, the data service, checks the company submissions and the calculation of company growth rates is based on the revenue figures submitted by the companies in the respective national currency.
The FT says for better comparability in the ranking, the revenue figures were converted into euros.
The average exchange rate for the financial year indicated by the company was used for this purpose. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was calculated as follows: ( (revenue2019 / revenue2016)^(1/3)) — 1 = CAGR;
The absolute growth between 2016 and 2019 was calculated as follows: (revenue2019 / revenue2016) — 1 = Growth rate.
Main 2021 results
The FT says Bulb Energy, the UK’s largest company that "claims to provide renewable energy, supplying 6% of the market," nudges OakNorth bank off the top spot in this year’s ranking, with a 2016-19 CAGR of 1,159%.
Sun Finance of Latvia, an online lender, is in second place with a compound growth rate of 752%, while UK water provider Everflow Group is third with a CAGR of 465%.
Technology is the main industry sector with 219 entrants, up from 189 in 2020. When fintech and e-commerce are added, the total rises to 290.
The FT says for "the first time, Italy is the country with the most entries on the list, with 269. Second is Germany with 204, followed by France with 162.
The UK has 137 firms on the list and The Netherlands has 22.
As with last year, London is the city with the greatest number of fast-growing companies (71), followed by Paris (45) and Milan (36)."
Finland has 12 entries; Estonia 9; Denmark 7 and Latvia 5.
