Deloitte Fast 50: Latest category to award sustained business growth

Thursday, 1 June 2017

Founder of recurring Fast 50 company Vend, Vaughan Rowsell, says he is thrilled to see Deloitte recognise the challenge of sustaining business growth with its new Master of growth category.

Companies that have kept up multi-million dollar revenue growth will be celebrated in Deloitte's Fast 50 awards this year.

Deloitte's Fast 50 index ranks New Zealands top 50 businesses with the highest revenue growth.

Last year, the top 50 had to achieve a minimum growth of 225 per cent to make the cut.

Deloitte private partner Bill Hale says a new Masters of Growth category in the Fast 50 recognises ongoing success.

A new Masters of Growth category will award companies that earned $5 million of revenue in 2013 and have continued to grow since.

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Retail software company Vend has featured on the Fast 50 for the past three years.

Founder Vaughan Rowsell said he was more proud of his company for consistently sustaining its growth over time because that was harder than rapidly scaling for one financial year.

'Growth in itself is hard … But, you know what is harder, is repeating that,' Rowsell said.

Some companies burst onto the Fast 50 index but disappeared just as quickly, he said.

Fast growth could easily be achieved by merging and acquiring other businesses, he said.

'Actually what is a lot harder is to build something that has longevity.'

Rowsell said Vend's subscription based business model helped the company to continue to grow.

But retaining those customers was a challenge, he said.

Customers satisfaction was Vend's secret to sustained growth, he said.

Rowsell welcomed the category that recognised the challenge of achieving sustained growth.

Deloitte private partner Bill Hale said it introduced the Masters of Growth to celebrate mature companies that had outgrown the Fast 50.

'[Such companies] have managed to break through those initial growth phases into sustained growth over a long period of time, which is a real challenge to do particularly in the New Zealand business environment.'

Other categories in the Fast 50 include Rising Stars for early stage businesses and awards for regional businesses.

Hale said the categories allowed for every stage of business to be celebrated.

To qualify for the Fast 50 growth index businesses have to be three years old and have made at least $500,000 of revenue in the 2015 financial year and demonstrated ongoing revenue growth for the subsequent two years.

Previously the minimum revenue requirement was $300,000.

Hale said businesses must enter themselves to be considered for any category.

Entries opened on Thursday and close on July 28.

Winners are to be announced early November.

Is your business growth on speed dial, despite all the missions you've faced so far? Entries for this year's Deloitte Fast 50 index are open now until July 28. Visit Deloitte Fast 50 for more information.