THREE Northern Ireland companies, between them employing 460 staff and with combined profits of £15 million,feature for the first time in the 20th anniversary edition of the Sunday Times BDO Profit Track 100 league table, which ranks the UK’s private companies with the fastest-growing profits.
The highest placed new entrant at number 14 is Newry-based construction and fit-out firm mac-group. Working mainly in Dublin, and whose clients include Oracle and Bristol-Myers Squibb, its profits grew by an average of 98 per cent a year to £4.5m.
It also completed work on the £11 million refurbishment of River House in Belfast city centre last year
Another new entrant (no 42) is refrigeration and catering rental firm Lowe in Lisburn. Its fridges, freezers and catering equipment are rented to the organisers of events like Glastonbury, Wimbledon and the Singapore Grand Prix.
Profits here grew by an average of 75 per cent to £4.4m, boosted by expansion to locations that include Dubai, Las Vegas and Shanghai.
And at number 80 in the list processing equipment manufacturer CDE Global in Cookstown, where profits have lifted 61 per cent to £6 million. Its plant in Qatar washes 1,200 tonnes of dune sand per hour and is the largest in the world.
This year’s Profit Track 100 companies achieved average profit growth of 78 per cent a year over three years, to a total of £840m in 2017/18. Together they employ 43,400 staff, having added 14,200 employees to their combined workforce.
