The acquisitive group jumped up to second place from ninth last year, and was only just pipped to the top spot by construction consultancy Turner & Townsend.
Paragon, listed in the Top Track with sales up 24% to £737.7m in the financial year ending June 2019, has continued on the M&A trail since, sealing its biggest buy yet last October with the deal to buy RR Donnelley’s BPO business set to propel sales past €1bn.
The group’s founder Paddy Crean has topped Printweek’s Power 100 poll for two year’s running. He is now executive chairman at the business after Sean Shine was appointed CEO in February.
Paragon Group also took over the number one spot in PrintWeek’s own Top 500 survey this year.
HH Global, which has just gained shareholder approval for its $177m takeover of much larger US-based rival InnerWorkings, rose 14 places at number 30. HH is also set to push sales beyond £1bn thanks to the deal.
Web offset and gravure printing group Walstead returned to the list after its takeover of LSC Poland’s web offset operations in 2018.
Online cards and gifts e-tailer Moonpig Group, which has seen business boom during the Covid-19 pandemic, features at number 133.
Industry supplier Brett Martin, which makes plastic materials including printable sheets, and has also seen sales soar due to the demand for ‘sneeze screens’, came in at number 137.
Birmingham print manager and marketing technology specialist Inspired Thinking Group (ITG) appeared at number 179.
Acquisitive £114.2m turnover labels business The Reflex Group, which now lays claim to being the largest label maker in the UK, made a debut appearance at 227.
Allied Glass Containers was featured at number 242 with sales up 14% at £107.5m. The Leeds-headquartered firm makes luxury glass packaging and has its own decoration facility that can achieve 360-degree printing on round containers,
The list concluded with Hull-based ESP Group, which makes travel smartcards for a wide range of transport operators, including the Oyster card for Transport for London.
The Top Track 250 is produced by Fast Track and ranks “mid-market” private companies with sales up to £750m by turnover. This year’s survey was sponsored by PwC and Lloyds Bank. The financial information pre-dates the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
