County celebrates profit champions at Hot 100 lunch

The county’s most profitable SMEs came together to celebrate their successes at a special Hot 100 lunch hosted by Lancashire Business View.

The Hot 100 is an annual listing of Lancashire small and medium sized businesses ranked by profit. Commissioned by LBV, the research is undertaken by Haworths Chartered Accountants.

Mark Bateson was the guest speaker at the event held at Barton Grange Hotel on 14 September. The business he co-founded, Metamark, was top of the table posting pre-tax profits of £3.5m from a turnover of £24m.

The Lancaster-based business, which also has operations in Woking, manufactures and distributes self-adhesive vinyl used as graphics to create signs on buildings and the livery for aircraft and commercial vehicles.

“We manufacture and deliver the materials to get a job done. We supply to the media graphics industry who apply it to windows, vehicles, exhibitions, aeroplanes. Our next move is likely to be into wall coverings, and we are extending our international reach which currently makes up around 40 per cent of sales,” said Mark.

The story of the growth of the business captivated an audience made up of many of the other businesses listed in the Hot 100 as well as guests from the public sector, business support, academia and finance.

Richard Slater, publisher of LBV, told the audience: “Business is a team game. We need entrepreneurs, they sit at the heart of our continued growth; but we also need our public sector partners to help drive infrastructure; we need support bodies to help unlock opportunities; we need academics and trainers to help shape ideas and then put them into practice and we need financiers to help realise dreams.” The Hot 100 was sponsored by HSBC, Seneca Partners and Haworths Chartered Accountants.