Skyscanner soars to top of BDO’s 100 fastest-growth league table

Skyscanner, the Edinburgh-based travel search engine, has hit the top three of the UK’s 100 fastest growing firms over the last three years in a list that also features 10 other Scottish firms.

Profits at Skyscanner, which employs 380 people worldwide, rose an average of 140 per cent a year to £18million in 2013, according to the 16th annual BDO Profit Track 100 league table.

The table showed Skyscanner moved ahead of former best-performing Scot, Inverness and Aberdeen-based Global Energy Group (GEG), although the firm shot up the standings to fifth place from 32nd last year.

The 11 companies headquartered in Scotland on the list had profits of £239million and employ 21,900 staff, having added 9,600 in the last three years. One big climber is Tunnock’s, maker of caramel wafers and tea cakes.

It jumped 35 places to 26th, buoyed by profit growth of 78 per cent during the period under review.

Tunnock’s is also one of the oldest firms on the league table. The company opened in a Glasgow baker’s shop in 1890, and is led by the founder’s grandson, Boyd Tunnock.

Martin Gill, of BDO, the sponsor of the list, said: “Medium-sized businesses in Scotland and across the UK are thriving.

“Our newly-named ‘Brittelstand’ has outgrown the German ‘Mittelstand’ with mid-market businesses across all sectors seizing the opportunities a growing economy presents.

“Scotland’s most profitable companies have remained focused on sustainable growth by making intelligent investment decisions in innovation and overseas expansion.”