Growth firms reap rewards

Two Dunedin companies have made the annual Deloitte Unlimited Fast 50 list, including gas heater manufacturer Escea, which is one of only a handful of companies to have repeatedly made the cut to remain on the list.

The Fast 50 list, based on annual revenue growth, was announced to a crowd of about 100 at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery yesterday.

Dunedin software developer Straylight Studies has made its first appearance on the Fast 50 list, ranked 33rd with 191% revenue growth, and also won the sub-category of fastest-growing Otago entrant and the region's fastest-growing technology business.

Escea, which has featured in the Fast 50 for three consecutive years, was ranked 38th with 164% growth, plus won sub-category awards for fastest-growing manufacturing business and fastest-growing investor in research and development.

The entire Fast 50 companies are credited with contributing more than $901 million to the New Zealand economy - up almost 20% on last year - and almost 1200 jobs during the past two years.

Deloitte partner in Dunedin Mike Horne said Straylight was a good example of a local company understanding how to gain leverage from its intellectual property to gain a price premium in a competitive market.

"Their unique application of game design, internal culture and use of technology set them apart as a business going places," Mr Horne said.

For the past four years, Straylight - which was started in a Northeast Valley flat by University of Otago graduates - had been a service company.

However, in late-July it decided to change its focus from being a service company to large organisations, developing products on demand for training or tourism, and was instead going to develop its own games and training tools to sell them on the global market.

Similarly, with three Fast 50 placements, Escea was an "outstanding" example of a company which used investment in research and development, marketing, networks and distribution to achieve sustained growth, Mr Horne said.

"Escea said it takes twice as long as you plan to get exports up and running and you only have one chance to make first impressions," Mr Horne said.

In late-July, three-year-old Escea, whose income is derived from about 20% of exports to Australia and the balance sold domestically, loaded its first export shipment to the US.

The company was forecasting an increase in turnover of almost 60%, to $10 million, this financial year, and could sell up to 3000 units.

In other Fast 50 sub-categories for Otago-Southland, suppliers Southern Hospitality was the fastest-growing retail/consumer products business award and, for the third time, the fastest-growing employer award.

Dunedin-founded insurance company Fraser Macandrew Ryan was named Otago's fastest-growing business services company.

Mr Horne noted this year the Fast 50 companies included a "huge leap" of agriculture-based businesses representing the primary, and supporting industries, sector, with No 1 on the Fast 50 list Masterton-based honey company Watson & Son, with 783% growth.