Vibrant Welsh companies
The brewery was launched by keen home brewers Sarah John and Roy Allkin in April 2015 and is located in Swansea’s bustling city centre.
Two years on, Ms John, who won the Young Business Person of the Year at the Swansea Bay Business Awards earlier this year, and Mr Allkin remain in tune with their ethos of having fun and a sense of humour, being bold and ambitious, and making glorious lagers and ales that are accessible and available for everyone to enjoy.
HUT SIX
Set up by a group of tech graduates, Newport-based Hut Six could be on the verge of big things.
The company has developed software training packages that will help businesses comply with tough new cyber security legislation.
The business, which incorporated after its team of graduate directors successfully came through the graduate entrepreneurship programme of the Alacrity Foundation in Newport, is already working with two of Wales’ leading firms, technology venture IQE and the Celtic Manor Resort.
It is also in talks with a number of government agencies, as well as targeting the financial and professional services sector.
DEVOPSGUYS
DevOpsGuys was set up in 2013 by the current managers James Smith and Stephen Thair after the pair saw an opening in the market to build an IT development and operations (DevOps) business from the bottom up.
The company exceeded its initial target of hiring 40 employees over 24 months and now has more than 70 staff members and consultants.
Its main customers are government departments and blue-chip clients including Admiral, Asos, BAE Systems, Defra, Nokia, Fitness First, Waitrose and Travelodge. It recently won a new contract with the DVLA worth £10m over the next two years.
The Cardiff-based firm is targeting £100m turnover over the next five years following an investment from Santander Corporate & Commercial. It recently won an award for SME of the Year at the Cardiff Business Awards.
BAD WOLF
This spring TV and film production company Bad Wolf unveiled the location for its new studio, the biggest ever built in Wales, at Trident Park in Cardiff Bay.
The company, set up by former BBC executives Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner, will film all its forthcoming productions in the studio, including the series A Discovery of Witches and His Dark Materials, the adaption of the Philip Pullman trilogy of novels.
Pre-production of His Dark Materials will start before Christmas, before moving into production early next year.
Bad Wolf was set up in Cardiff in 2015 by Ms Gardner and Ms Tranter – whose credits include bringing Doctor Who and Torchwood to Wales – with the aim of exploiting their US relationships and intellectual property to secure, develop and produce a high-value slate of TV drama projects in Wales.
PROTON PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL
This spring the first cancer-fighting proton beam therapy machine was installed at meditech company Proton Partners’ specialist cancer treatment centre at Newport.
It’s one of three such centres which will offer the advanced treatment, the others being built at Reading and Bomarsund, Northumberland.
The centres will be named Rutherford Cancer Centres in honour of the scientist Ernest Rutherford, who identified and named the proton particle in 1919.
The Newport centre is nearing completion and will offer chemotherapy, radiotherapy and imaging via the latest planning and treatment technologies. Treatment will be available to medically insured private patients, self-paying patients and patients referred by the NHS.
The company was formed following discussions between Professor Karol Sikora, former head of the World Health Organisation’s cancer programme, Sir Chris Evans, the leading life sciences entrepreneur, and Neil Woodford, founding partner of Woodford Investment Management.
Institutional and private investors have committed to almost £100m equity finance in the company.