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A SEAFOOD company which includes the celebrity chefs Heston Blumenthal among its customers has again being named as being among Britain's fastest growing profitable private companies.
It is the second time that Seafood Holdings has been in the top 100 businesses. In February it appeared among the leading private equity backed companies.
This latest list, compiled by Fast Track and backed by a number of financial institutions including Lloyds TSB and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, says Seafood Holdings now has a nationwide fish and seafood distribution service.Profits increased 58 per cent a year from £764,000 in 2006 to £3-million in 2009.
The reports says: "Chefs Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal are among the restaurateurs, hotels, pubs and caterers that buy £100 million worth of fish and seafood from this supplier every year.
"Toby Baxendale, chief executive, started buying fish from Billingsgate market in 1992, selling it on to London restaurants. After snapping up a succession of rivals and opening regional offices, Seafood Holdings offers a nationwide service. Risk Capital Partners invested £3m for a 24 per cent stake in 2006."
He also co-owned a restaurant while studying at university and part of his strategy was to buy local fish, meat and vegetables - a philosophy which he has carried into Seafood Holdings.
Mr Baxendale said: "We are proud of this achievement. Total dedication to what our customers want and prices that they can afford to pay is our simple guiding light and we intend to continue only the lines of those enduring principles.
Seafood Holdings has several strategic locations covering the entire UK including Scotland, Newcastle, Bolton, London and the West Country.
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