WHO'S afraid of the big bad economy? Not, apparently, these firms.
The annual Fastest Growing 50 ranking exercise saw a record 350 companies qualifying - that's up 46 per cent from last year.
These are companies that grew their sales at least 10 per cent annually in the last four years, while remaining continually profitable.
DP Information Group, which conducted the exercise, said that the 'ranking exercise serves as a platform to recognise high-growth companies, highlighting the best-performing companies within the different sectors'.
The ranking is now into its seventh year. This year's top 50 represent a diverse mix of industries and businesses.
In top place is Gardenia International - a group of bakery companies in Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia and Bonjour Bakery in Singapore.
The group is part of the listed QAF. Gardenia has captured 75 per cent of the sandwich loaf market in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines.
It bought pastry maker Bakers Maison in 2004, which has doubled Gardenia International's sales in Australia, with its array of French style baguettes, Danish buns and other continental-style pastries.
Among the top-ranked companies this year - and probably the biggest - is shipbuilding giant Cosco.
It saw its turnover in the first quarter to March 31 more than double to $717.7 million due to increasing demand driven primarily by growing global trade and commodities export from China, and the canny acquisition of a 51 per cent stake in China-based Cosco Shipyard Group.
Other listed companies or units of listed companies that ranked highly were LVMH Fragrances and Cosmetics, a unit of the French luxury retailing giant; Wearnes International (1994), the luxury car distribution unit of WBL Corp; Keppel Corp's venture fund unit k1 ventures; and Salzgitter Mannesmann International (Asia), the regional unit of the global steel trading firm that is part of the Salzgitter Group.
But most impressive this year is the number of small and medium-size enterprises that have made it to the list. Sixteen of the top 50 are considered SMEs and 84 of them qualified, almost a quarter of the total.
Sitting pretty among them is Filtec (third place), a filtration parts provider that started out as an automotive parts distributor.
It recorded just $5 million in sales in 2004 but that figure is set to hit $17 million this year, according to the company's projections.
But possibly the most impressive growth was registered by Nichefinder, which distributes everything from mobile phones to biscuits and power tools.
It had revenues of just US$7.4 million in 2004 - but by end-2007, that has exploded to US$205 million. Nichefinder's growth took off when it secured a number of lucrative mobile phone distributing deals in India and Russia.
It achieved this feat with just 15 staff manning representative offices in four countries. And on the back of the recent boom in property and building activity, the construction sector has seen a surge in entrants to the Fastest Growing 50 list.
Thirteen companies from the construction sector qualified for the exercise this year with five in the top 50.
Placed eighth is Jian Huang, which specialises in design-and-build industrial buildings and in civil engineering works.
It recently embarked on a $25.3 million Suki Sushi industrial development project at Tai Seng Street, and also the JH Innovation Centre, which is expected to house all the companies of the Jian Huang Group upon completion.
DP Info said the better performance in this year's exercise meant that the lowest compound annual growth rate in the top 50 increased from 61.8 per cent last year to 73 per cent, the highest-ever recorded since 2002.
That was 'a testament that the business community in Singapore is growing at a healthy rate notwithstanding the turbulence in the global financial markets and a slowdown in the United States economy', said DP Info.
'Nonetheless, Singapore companies should gird themselves for further uncertainties ahead, in the face of rising business costs and fuel prices.'
