BELFAST-based M&M Contractors is the only company in Northern Ireland to feature in this weekend's 20th anniversary edition of the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table,which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing sales.
Founded in 1980 by Noel Loye (64) and now run by his son Gareth (36), the firm comes in at number 52 on the list.
M&M Contractors specialises in designing and installing underground telecoms and electrical cabling networks for power and telecoms customers, including British Telecom and SSE.
Its largest project was the installation of a 4,600km sub-sea fibre-optic cable between the UK and the US.
The company's sales have spiralled by 66 per cent a year to £11.8 m in 2015, according to the Fast Track 100 table.
Previous Northern Ireland companies to figure on the list include Ballyclare-based online bike retailer Chain Reaction Cycles, which had sales of £136m before its merger with Wiggle this year.
Others from around the UK include mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse, which merged with Dixons in 2014 and employs 42,000 people; and chip designer ARM, which featured on the first league table with sales of £17m and was acquired by Japan's SoftBank for £24bn earlier this year.
Sir Richard Branson of title sponsor Virgin said: "For 20 years, the Fast Track 100 has checked the country’s entrepreneurial pulse, and highlighted the best and brightest talents emerging from the UK – this year is no exception.
"When I started up in business almost 50 years ago, the word entrepreneur wasn’t really known. Now everyone knows entrepreneurs are the job makers and innovation stimulators of the world. More importantly, many, many more people want to join the club, and change business for good.”
This year’s Fast Track 100 achieved, on average, sales growth of 67 per cent a year over three years to a total of £3.3 billion. Together they employ 19,400 staff, having added 14,200 jobs over the period.
