Five southern companies were announced as regional winners of the Deloitte Fast 50 Index last night.
Regional winner announcements were the first step in the Fast 50 awards process, culminating in the national celebrations in Auckland on November 23.
At that event, the Fast 50, national category winners and national Master of Growth index would be revealed.
Dunedin-based IT and digital recruitment company Crew Consulting, launched by Cory Richards and Tom Sweeney in 2015 with only two desks and a telephone each, won fastest-growing services business.
Connor Jones Group, a Dunedin business operated by Tom Connor and Chris Jones, was named fastest-growing construction business and Queenstown travel business Xtravel won fastest-growing retail or consumer products business.
Viblock, which manufactures and supplies architectural masonry blocks, pavers and retaining walls, with manufacturing plants in Alexandra and Christchurch, was fastest-growing manufacturing business.
NZX-listed cancer diagnostics company Pacific Edge won both the fastest-growing technology business and fastest-growing exporter.
The Fast 50 covers the year ending March, before the Medicare non-coverage determination in June by Novitas and then its July withdrawal.
Dunedin-based Deloitte partner Kyle Cameron said themes from the index included strength through the services industry and recruitment, although recruitment would have come off over the following six-month period.
Construction had also been strong while tourism clients had done "incredibly well", and it was good to see a return to sustainable tourism businesses.
There had been weakening in some sectors, including consumer products.
Overall, the response had been "a bit more muted", with southern businesses more reluctant than their northern counterparts to put their names forward.
But growing exporting businesses were needed for New Zealand to do well, he said.
