Crawley-based company is the second fastest growing in the UK

Balfe's Bikes is second placed overall, and the fastest growing company in retail, the sector best represented in Growth Index 2024; a surprise, given that consumer spending was so hard hit by the cost-of-living crisis towards the end of the reporting period.

Now in its third year, ORESA Growth Index is the definitive ranking of the UK companies with the fastest growing sales, created to celebrate the companies that have supercharged growth and the leaders that have inspired and driven it.

Companies are ranked by compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in sales over their last two financial accounting years (including filings up to February 2024). The ranking shines a spotlight on the most successful sectors and companies in the UK, championing good growth and the equitable democratisation of business opportunity in the UK.

Basingstoke-based rapid EV charging network, Instavolt comes in at No. 1 in the UK Top 100 with a compound annual growth rate of 362.55 per cent. The news comes as Instavolt CEO, Adrian Keen, announced recently that he would be stepping down from the role.

The strength of winner InstaVolt’s financial position is a result of its acquisition in early 2022 by Sweden’s EQT, one of the world’s largest private equity companies, with a focus on the green transition. Not only does InstaVolt intend to hit a target of 10,000 rapid chargers in the UK by 2030, but it has also launched in Iceland, and will launch in Spain and Portugal later this year, with a concurrent European target of 5,000 chargers.

Adrian Keen, CEO of InstaVolt says: “The UK needs approximately 60-70,000 rapid public chargers by the end of the decade to keep pace with electrification goals, so there’s plenty of headroom for growth. We’ve got a pipeline of thousands, and partnerships with big brands that can keep us busy for years, but we’re only just getting started.

"There are huge segments that haven’t been explored yet, where we’d love to work. It’s really exciting. Everywhere you stop your car is an opportunity to charge.”

Currently keeping more of the UK’s electric vehicles on the move than any other, InstaVolt is the UK’s largest owner-operator of rapid public chargers, with 1,500 in strategic locations around the country, or approximately 15 per cent of the market.

The top five companies from the South East whose phenomenal growth has secured them a place in the UK’s Growth Index 2024 are:

• (No. 1) Instavolt, a rapid EV charging network based in Basingstoke, with a CAGR of 362.55 per cent 
• (No. 2) Balfe’s Bikes, a specialist cycling retail and maintenance company based in Crawley, with a CAGR of 351.06 per cent 
• (No. 12) Rebound Electronics, based in Newbury, who provide supply chain and inventory management for electronic components, with a CAGR of 158.79 per cent 
• (No. 22) SCA, a Chatham-based company who provide port, logistics and supply services to military and humanitarian organisations, with a CAGR of 133.24 per cent 
• (No. 39) Atlantic Pacific, a company who provide global logistics and supply chain services, based in Maldon, with a CAGR of 97.59 per cent  

Commenting on the results, Orlando Martins, founder of Growth Index and ORESA said: “What our findings this year confirm, for me, is that growing revenue and making a profit are not mutually exclusive goals. This is something to be welcomed, not least because profitability is an essential feature of good growth: without it, an enterprise cannot be sustainable.

“The wider spread of sectors in Growth Index 2024 could be a sign of a broader economic recovery from Covid lows or simply a response to contraction in equity funding - we suspect a combination of both,” he added.