It has been a busy year at Communicate and, looking back over 2017, we cannot believe just how far we have come.
Our first highlight was to have been pitched as the 228th fastest growing company in Europe by The Financial Times. Drilling through the stats, we were even more pleased to realise that in fact we were the 2nd fastest growing company in the North East of England, where our HQ resides, and the only company in our sector to be included in Teesside!
This accolade was swiftly followed by an approach by national paper The Telegraph as they had identified us as ‘one to watch’ and included us in a film to help us tell our story and vision for the future.
As well as receiving external recognition, internally we have invested heavily in our team and this year bolstered our management structure by appointing Sales Director John Toal, Business Development Manager Oliver Stell and Marketing and Business Development Manager Emily Bentley.
In the summer, we took on our first apprentice, Jordan Woollett, at our Wynyard office and we’re working with Stockton Riverside College on his training and development to enable us to ‘grow our own’ talent.
2017 also saw Communicate’s second acquisition, Landscape Networks, a Cyber security and data protection product and services provider, based just outside of Leeds in West Yorkshire. Paul Dick and the team joined the group adding a new product and service line to our proposition and, since the acquisition, have already added three people to their team.
We have helped clients move onto our sites with our business migration service, and move across our sites as they outgrew their original premises. We have supported many charity events across the year including our continued support for client Scarborough and Ryedale Mountain Rescue Team, with an annual donation towards equipment renewal, a 10km run/walk also in aid of the team and the Middlesbrough & Teesside Philanthropic Foundation’s annual Christmas shoebox appeal.
We’ve proudly been featured in Earnest Lab and Earnest Agency’s Think Small project when they did their UK tour looking into how businesses gear themselves up for growth. Later in the year we also featured in the North East Times Magazine’s ‘Building the Future’ issue, commenting on the importance of high-speed connectivity and co-working in multi-occupancy office space to help businesses grow.
We have connected five buildings in London and one in Cardiff with many more to come from our ongoing relationship with Property Initiatives.
And finally, we celebrated hitting £1m of reported sales for the first time in a quarter, smashing last year’s results and an anticipated increase of 100% in group revenue for our full year to the end of 2017 – what an end to the year!
So, here’s to another successful year – we’re looking forward to 2018!
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
