How this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 companies battle the myth of low productivity
Auckland’s Pushpay, a developer of mobile commerce tools, is number one on this year’s Deloitte Fast 50, with growth of 4,574 percent. Auckland-based digital customer relationship management platform Plexure (1,197 percent growth), Christchurch house lifter SmartLift Systems (1028 percent), Wellington brewery Panhead Custom Ales (925 percent) and Auckland travel company All Blacks Tours (822 percent) round out the top five.
The tech and service focus doesn’t surprise Deloitte Private partner Bill Hale. “Historically our Fast 50 is a really good barometer of what’s happening in the SME market,” he said. “Service businesses have been particularly strong the past couple of years.” The continuing rebuild in Christchurch was powering a fair portion of that service growth, Hale added.
Services wasn’t the only high-growth area, either. “Social media is another area of strong growth. A lot of it is underpinned by technology. It’s just that ability to scale.”
The threshold for entry into the Fast 50 this year was growth of at least 225 percent, which is the highest entry threshold since the index was launched in 2001.
Hale also spoke about the effect the surprise resignation of New Zealand Prime Minister John Key might have on business. “No one seemed immediately disturbed,” he said. “Generally the overwhelming theme [among Fast 50 companies] is ‘we’re going to make our own way.’”
However, he said there would be concern if Key’s departure signaled a period of high turnover among PMs, similar to Australia. “We’ve had some good times with continuity.”
No fewer than 53 companies from the Land of the Long White Cloud also made the Deloitte Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500 list. With the index open to companies from throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region, Hale said that for more than 10 percent of the companies to be from New Zealand was a real achievement, and meant Aotearoa was outperforming countries including China, Japan and South Korea. “The ecosystem [in New Zealand] has got so much stronger over the past decade. We get hammered for low productivity in the OECD [compared to other countries], but that’s not the case in this sector.”
However, as with any index that ranks percentage growth for companies, Hale said the real challenge for businesses was not to be listed on the Deloitte Fast 50 or Deloitte Asia Pacific Technology Fast 500, but to be listed multiple years in a row. “The larger the business becomes, the harder it gets to maintain growth rates.”
2016 Deloitte Fast 50 | |||
Rank | Company | Revenue growth (%) | Fast 50 region |
1 | Pushpay | 4,574.4 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
2 | Plexure | 1,197.3 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
3 | SmartLift Systems | 1,027.6 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
4 | Panhead Custom Ales | 925.2 | Wellington and Lower North Island |
5 | All Blacks Tours | 822.3 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
6 | TENCO EBS | 750.7 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
7 | IFS Forestry | 721.3 | Dunedin and Lower South Island |
8 | Teknique | 607.5 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
9 | Ultrafast Fibre | 600.6 | Central North Island |
10 | Whanau Tahi | 508.4 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
11 | Snap Rentals | 461.7 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
12 | 90 Seconds | 447.5 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
13 | MajorDomo | 435.5 | Dunedin and Lower South Island |
14 | House Lifters | 418.1 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
15 | Acquire Online | 406.4 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
16 | MAXRaft | 405.9 | Dunedin and Lower South Island |
17 | Cobra Labs | 392.3 | Central North Island |
18 | Payless Energy | 385.7 | Dunedin and Lower South Island |
19 | Bird on a Wire | 362.7 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
20 | Ecoware | 354.3 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
21 | CAVIUS Nano | 346.3 | Central North Island |
22 | BLIS Technologies | 345.6 | Dunedin and Lower South Island |
23 | Future Air Solutions | 325.6 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
24 | Spotlight Reporting | 324.2 | Wellington and Lower North Island |
25 | Tax Traders | 322.1 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
26 | James Group | 311.5 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
27 | Little Island | 305.2 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
28 | CMOS | 300.9 | Wellington and Lower North Island |
29 | GeoOp | 300.6 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
30 | Kowtow Clothing | 297.7 | Wellington and Lower North Island |
31 | Southbase Construction | 296.8 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
32 | Uprise Solutions | 289.6 | Wellington and Lower North Island |
33 | Protempo | 277.6 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
34 | Pacificomm | 273.7 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
35 | The Career Academy | 270.9 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
36 | The Last Pickle | 268.2 | Wellington and Lower North Island |
37 | EverEdge | 266.1 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
38 | Vend | 265.3 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
39 | PowerbyProxi | 257.2 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
40 | The Road Trip | 250.5 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
41 | Josh is a Sparky | 249.3 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
42 | New Y Trading | 246.7 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
43 | Compass Agribusiness Management | 242.9 | Dunedin and Lower South Island |
44 | OneStaff | 238.1 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
45 | Le Bon Bolli Restaurant Limited | 237.1 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
46 | Collective | 236.8 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
47 | ZB Homes | 236.4 | Central North Island |
48 | Moola | 236.2 | Christchurch and Upper South Island |
49 | Touchtech | 226.5 | Wellington and Lower North Island |
50 | Optimal Clinical Trials | 225.3 | Auckland and Upper North Island |
National Rising Star: Parking Sense (Central North Island) |
