Northampton firms beat the credit crunch
Two companies based in Northampton have been recognised for defying the credit crunch in a top 100 league of firms with the fastest-growing profits.
Security guard provider VSG, which has its head office in Brackmills, has been ranked 61 out of 100 UK companies after its profits swelled by more than 60 per cent between 2005 and 2008.
Property business Barwood Developments, based in Grange Park, came 90th in the league table compiled by the Sunday Times and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which is published in tomorrow's Sunday Times.
Rob Jones, finance director at VSG, said one of the firm's biggest coups over the last three years was its contract with Westfield shopping centre in London, which was opened by X Factor winner Leona Lewis.
He said: "We are quite proud to be in the list and it is good for our staff to be associated with a successful company.
"We have made our first acquisition in a firm called Rampart security so that was a big issue for us this year and we opened up an extension here in Northampton, which has given us the capacity to continue to grow.
"The security industry is always talked about as robust and I don't think there is any industry that is recession-proof but the level of crime is going up. We have been able to benefit from economies of scale and a 61 per cent growth in profits is a nice number."
Independent property developer Barwood has seen its profits grow by more than 50 per cent in the period between 2005 and 2008, with projects such as a massive warehouse for Cadburys in Milton Keynes.
Alan Rudge, chairman, said Barwood's success was down to its creativity and agility, resulting in 180 million in profit over the last 12 years.
Mr Rudge said: "What is important is actual results delivered and certainly for the preceding three years, we have had a very good performance.
"In terms of the economic downturn, what took the industry by surprise is that it happened with such speed and force. It took a lot of people by surprise but we had planned for the downturn.
"Our business is cyclical and out of that comes opportunities."
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