26Oct2016
Every year Nordic Business Report reviews and highlights the corporate Gazelles powering their way through the business jungle and into the open savannah of success. As well as reviewing which Finnish companies made the grade, NBR is also upping its game and publishing the Swedish companies that can be classified as Gazelles. In this first article, however, we will focus on Finland.
As a recap, or for those who aren’t aware, a gazelle company is a high-growth company that has doubled its revenues over a four-year period. For the purposes of our report, additional criteria include a positive profit in each of the four years, a starting revenue of at least €135,000 and financial statements for all four years.
Surging to the top of the list this year was the anticipated arrival of Supercell, whose meteoric success meant they just failed to meet the qualifying criteria in 2015. Despite not maintaining the unbelievable pace they achieved in their first years, at 2592% growth they still a massive 10 times more successful than their next nearest rival Delete Finland.
Just as we did last year we have highlighted those who have reached the top 5 positions in each of the 7 sub-categories, taking into account the difficulty of sustaining substantial growth when your revenue stream is already high. With that being said it was important to compare the success of those who topped the lists last year and to note if they were able to make the list once again?
The leader from last year in the €100M+ category, Kamux, managed to not only maintain a revenue stream of over 20% again for 2015 – and so be classified a gazelle once more – they also manage to stay in the top 5. For the top category this is by no means an easy feat, so credit must be given for such an achievement.
Moving down the categories only 15 of the 35 companies from last year, that came in the top 5 across all categories, were able to maintain a 20% growth for the following year. This evaluation doesn’t take into consideration all companies that were gazelles in 2014 and 2015, but it does demonstrate how difficult it is to sustain such high growth consistently. Next year it will be interesting to see which companies (if any) are still chasing the pack from those we have highlighted.
Finally, a special mention should go to Ab DU-tec Oy, TLT-Building Oy and Wise Group Finland Oy who all managed to move up a category, albeit not staying in the top 5. Then there is also Laattapiste Oy and Haanpaa Oy who managed to maintain their top 5 positions in the same category as they did in 2014. Finally, Touhula Varhaiskasvatus Oy not only managed to move up to the next category but their progress was so good that they just squeezed into the top 5 again! A fantastic effort.
Financial data for Finnish Gazelles provided by Asiakastieto. Incorporated company information also included.
TOP 5 Gazelles €100M+ revenue
| COMPANY | REVENUE 2015 (€) | GROWTH 2012-2015 (%) |
| Supercell* | 2 109 181 553 | 2592 |
| Delete Finland Oy | 100 369 000 | 226 |
| Kamux Suomi Oy | 265 862 000 | 198 |
| Tuike Finland Oy | 228 836 000 | 182 |
| Rakennusliike Lapti Oy | 114 076 447 | 163 |
Altogether 17 companies in this category. *Information based on consolidated financial statement
TOP 5 Gazelles €50M – €99.9M revenue
| COMPANY | REVENUE 2015 (€) | GROWTH 2012-2015 (%) |
| BMH Technology Oy | 54 303 000 | 16159 |
| Tuuliwatti Oy | 70 198 000 | 3538 |
| Hyvät Lehdet RSM Oy | 73 160 000 | 1698 |
| GroupM Finland Oy | 93 367 000 | 1397 |
| HCL Technologies Limited, Helsingin sivuliike | 77 360 000 | 648 |
Altogether 17 companies in this category
TOP 5 Gazelles €25M – €49.9M revenue
| COMPANY | REVENUE 2015 (€) | GROWTH 2012-2015 (%) |
| Haanpaa Oy | 31 596 000 | 7387 |
| Laattapiste Oy | 30 005 936 | 7183 |
| Axpo Finland Oy | 44 157 000 | 4742 |
| Savon Media Oy | 41 243 000 | 1073 |
| Touhula Varhaiskasvatus Oy | 30 404 000 | 683 |
Altogether 35 companies in this category
TOP 5 Gazelles €10M – €24.9M revenue
| COMPANY | REVENUE 2015 (€) | GROWTH 2012-2015 (%) |
| Odeal Oy | 16 722 000 | 3861 |
| Cemt-Trans Oy | 11 623 231 | 3041 |
| Skyr Finland Oy | 22 022 000 | 1155 |
| Pohjolan LVIturva Oy | 10 077 000 | 9967 |
| Imatran YH-Rakennuttaja Oy | 16 321 847 | 820 |
Altogether 91 companies in this category
TOP 5 Gazelles €5M – €9.9M revenue
| COMPANY | REVENUE 2015 (€) | GROWTH 2012-2015 (%) |
| Kotkan Kiinteistöpalvelu Oy | 5 172 000 | 2149 |
| Smile MMS Oy | 5 024 000 | 1099 |
| Euroloan Group Oyj | 6 610 208 | 1074 |
| Ranmarin Yachts Oy | 7 801 000 | 1048 |
| Kariluoto Capital Oy | 6 268 000 | 951 |
Altogether 139 companies in this category
TOP 5 Gazelles €2.5M – €4.9M revenue
| COMPANY | REVENUE 2015 (€) | GROWTH 2012-2015 (%) |
| Linnasteel Oy | 4 590 950 | 2266 |
| Taaleri Tuulitehtaan hallinnointiyhtiö Oy | 2 767 000 | 1770 |
| Trutec Oy | 3 821 000 | 1720 |
| Oy Spinkkilä Ltd | 2 824 000 | 1401 |
| Ruuhijärvi Oy | 4 795 199 | 1390 |
Altogether 243 companies in this category
TOP 5 Gazelles <€2.5M revenue
| COMPANY | REVENUE 2015 (€) | GROWTH 2012-2015 (%) |
| EasTeam Oy | 2 208 000 | 1512 |
| Helsingin-Uudenmaan Taksit Oy | 2 263 000 | 1358 |
| Bests Oy | 2 259 000 | 1357 |
| Iconsteel Oy | 1 706 000 | 1101 |
| 4-Motion Oy | 1 943 000 | 1057 |
Altogether 1019 companies in this category
