MEGA GROWTH 50, THE 50 FASTEST-GROWING BUSINESSES IN KENT

It is often said the strength of the British chemical industry is under-appreciated – so to see London Chemicals & Resources (LCR) so high on this year’s list is encouraging. The firm, which moved to its head office in Westerham in 2009, is an international recycler, distributor and supplier of chemicals and metals for industry.

And over recent years its growth has been significant, seeing revenues leap by more than 323% over the last three years – fuelled in part by a focus on recycling industrial materials.

Such a rate would have put it at number one in last year’s Mega Growth 50 list, but for this year, it has to settle for a still impressive second place.

Turnover for 2018 was £27.9million which delivered the firm, which has less than 10 staff, a pre-tax profit of £803,000.

Founded in 2005, the company’s founding partners – the current managing director Richard Bartholomew and fellow director Peter Nicholson – have more than 20 years of experience in the global distribution and trading of chemicals, base and minor metals and the London Metal Exchange – the world centre for metal trading.

It put the fledgling firm in good stead. Three years after it was created it started to roll-out a “strategic move upstream” to expand its offering and hiring specialist staff to deal with more secondary metals – those derived from waste coming from refineries, synthesis gas producers and other areas.

It joined the Chemical Business Association in 2011 and by 2015 with its continuing development into the field of secondaries, obtained UK registration as a waste broker and dealer.

As its growth continued, the London Stock Exchange recognised the firm as “a company to inspire Britain” and last year saw it become a member of the Bureau of International Recycling.