LOCAL AREA SUMARY:

Buckinghamshire Thames Valley

Total number of scaleups

No. by employee growth

No. by turnover growth

No. by employee and turnover growth

Total employees

Total turnover

Top 5 Visible Scaleups by Employee Growth

Softcat
Softcat provides IT infrastructure including data centres and network security services.

Buckingham Group Contracting
Buckingham Group Contracting provides construction, building and civil engineering services on a contractual basis.

TSL Projects
TSL Projects offers a range of outsourced services to manufacturing and engineering companies.

Sorbon Estates
Sorbon Estates operates a commercial property estate agency.

GreenTech Distribution
GreenTech Distribution recycles old mobile devices by refurbishing them and wiping their data and then selling them onto clients.

Top 5 Visible Scaleups by Turnover Growth

Lucas Auto Centre
Lucas Auto Centre operates a car showroom.

MSCM
MSCM manufactures and supplies subsea equipment to the oil and gas industry.

Cartridge World Retail
Cartridge World Retail retails a range of printer cartridges.

British Honey Producers
British Honey Producers operates a bee farm.

Sorbon Estates
Sorbon Estates operates a commercial property estate agency.

Local LEP ScaleUp Programmes

Buckinghamshire has a large portfolio of support available for scaleups focused on overcoming any barriers to growth such as leadership skills, access to new markets, investment readiness, grant funding and infrastructure. The Growth Programme specifically supports businesses with aspirations to grow and offers masterclasses from Cranfield School of Management on growing a business as well as investment readiness masterclasses and peer to peer networking. The MD Ngage programme offers facilitated peer-to-peer learning designed to inspire business leaders to be inspired as well as allow them to discuss challenges and share issues of business interest. The LEP is also championing simplified cooperation with universities and workspaces for incubation and collaboration.

The Local Industrial Strategy identifies areas where Buckinghamshire can take a lead. These include: The Westcott space cluster, Pinewood Studios and the National Film and Television School as a creative industries cluster, Silverstone Park and the technology cluster, Digital health, med-tech and advanced artificial intelligence cluster at Stoke Mandeville. Sector groups have also been set up for the key sectors through a collaboration between Bucks LEP, The Skills Hub and The Buckinghamshire Business First Growth Hub with work focussing mainly on skills in the workplace and apprenticeships.

Scaleup Views

The key barriers to growth are Markets in the UK, Tax breaks and Markets internationally. They are looking for support through procurement contracts, public sector funding for innovation/R&D, British Business Bank, Visas and DIT.

Top barriers to growth

  • Markets in the UK
  • Tax breaks
  • Markets internationally

want TO SEE more of:

  • Procurement contracts
  • Public sector funding for innovation/R&D
  • British Business Bank
  • Visas
  • DIT

The Growth Hub continued to build on its engagement with high growth scale up SMEs however with the advent of Covid the support required shifted dramatically. In the short to medium term businesses have had to quickly adapt and the Growth hub has been the main source of information and support during this time. Moving forward recovery planning, innovation and ensuring that SMEs with the potential to scale have access to support and information will be core to ensuring that the scale up community is rebuilt quickly.