Manchester-headquartered design and branding agency Equator has reached a record turnover of £16.9m with overseas sales accounting to £9.3m.
The firm which takes 5th place in the Design Week’s Top 100 Consultancy Survey 2016, detailing the most successful independent UK design businesses across all sectors has nearly doubled its fee income in the past two years.
Equator has been named in The Times SME Export Track Top 100 this year which ranks Britain’s 100 small and medium-sized (SME) companies with the fastest-growing international sales over the latest two years. Equator’s work was also recognised at the UK Packaging Awards 2016 where the agency’s creatives scooped the Design Team of the Year award.
Equator’s managing director, Gary Flynn projects further 18% growth for 2016/2017 which sits above the industry average of 15%. He said: “We deliver large design projects for a number of customers from all our locations that will result in us delivering 12,000 plus products by the end of this year and expect to finish 2016 hitting another record turnover of £20m.”
Gary attributes the agency’s success to its unique under one roof proposition. “Each of our sites house creatives, photographers, account handlers, production artists, colour management and print specialists.
“Our approach lets us deliver designs from the very concept to our customers’ shelves, cutting out third parties. Our teams work together on the same projects across all offices, regardless of their geographical location. Being able to move work around globally means that we can share trends and utilise our creative talent to deliver great packaging design, 24/7,” added Gary.
Equator currently has 242 staff and is actively recruiting creatives across all sites in line with its growth. The agency’s clients include The Co-operative, Aldi, Nisa and Next. The firm has offices in Manchester, Nottingham, Dublin and Chicago and partner agencies in Sydney and China.
