SPONSORED BY NEL FUND MANAGERS
SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
FINALIST ACHIEVE HOSPITALITY
Over five years, Achieve Hospitality has developed from a small boutique recruitment agency to a global recruitment agency, with notable success in terms of turnover, employer and client partnership growth.
On the back of its success, a second recruitment agency, Achieve Professionals, has been launched.
FINALIST ATOM FINANCIAL
NEL Fund Managers CEO Paul Scott( right) presented the Small Business of the Year award to Outrank CEO Stephen Robinson.
WINNER
OUTRANK
It’ s the award-winning small business that keeps getting bigger! Middlesbrough-based digital marketing agency Outrank did what its name suggests by outranking four other worthy finalists in the Tees Business Awards Small Business of the Year category – Achieve Hospitality, Atom Financial, Beartech and Bubo. ai.
The category, sponsored by NEL Fund Managers, is one of the most hotlycontested in the annual awards scheme.
But after receiving the trophy, an“ over the moon” CEO Stephen Robinson revealed that not only does it have ambitious expansion plans in terms of numbers employed, it’ s getting a new home too.
Set up by Stephen and wife Gemma, the firm’ s customer services director, in 2018, Outrank has become the UK’ s leading specialist local search digital marketing agency, with services encompassing paid media, integrated SEO, email marketing and web design development.
Based at Riverside Park in Middlesbrough, but with offices in Edinburgh and London, its growing customer base means it’ s soon moving to a larger 6,000 sq ft home just around the corner from its current HQ.
And Stephen, who admitted he was“ gobsmacked” to be named Small Business of the Year, put the firm’ s success down to its team.
He said:“ We’ ve got an unbelievable team that’ s continuing to grow. The best thing about that is you get so many different insights into how to approach a marketing strategy – there’ s not one rule anymore and the more people we’ re adding, it’ s really pushing us along.
“ The plan is that within three years, we’ ll be in the States- we’ ve got a data strategy and a product strategy to allow that journey. And our staffing levels continue to grow. When the video that was shown on stage was filmed last week, we had 38 but we’ re 42 now – so we’ re growing quite quickly!
“ By the end of the year, we’ ll be at about 58 heads and climbing – the new office will allow that to happen – and we forecast that by the end of the year, we’ ll be close to 70 and on we go.”
Since its launch in 2021, Atom Financial has rapidly established itself as a trusted partner for businesses across the Tees Valley, providing expert financial and HR support to help SMEs grow and succeed.
With strong business growth, an expanding client base, and a passion for supporting the local community, in just four years Atom has helped businesses secure more than £ 2m in investments, expanded its service offerings and developed strategic partnerships to enhance client support.
FINALIST BEARTECH
Starting as a two-person team, in one year technology consultancy BearTech has grown to 22, creating jobs and fostering an inclusive culture. From delivering transformative projects that optimise global operations to developing cutting-edge systems for space technology, its work blends local roots with global reach.
FINALIST BUBO. AI
Bubo. ai uses the power of AI to optimise selling prices and improve customer retention for B2B customers in the UK, EU and USA. Proud to be based in Teesside, it provides practical AI solutions to B2B companies across the globe, with around 50 % of its revenues coming from outside the UK and 95 % from outside the region.
SPONSOR’ S REFLECTIONS:
NEL Fund Managers CEO, Paul Scott:“ SMEs are a real engine of growth for the economy and drive a huge amount of innovation and job creation. That needs to be celebrated and it’ s why NEL wanted to sponsor this category. Teesside is bursting with ambition, talent and creativity, so it makes me excited about the future – and it was really difficult to choose from such a phenomenally high calibre shortlist but Outrank is an absolutely worthy winner that’ s growing fantastically well.”
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