The past decade has been a real success story for Lancashire’s scaleup economy and the sector is continuing to grow, as Two Zero has reported through news stories and other insights across our channels since we launched in 2020.
The Scaleup Institute’s Scaleup Annual Review 2025, released in November, highlighted a ten-year average annual growth in scaleup density of 2.8, meaning the county has gained an average of 2.8 more scaleups per 100,000 population each year over the past decade, with other regional and national reports highlighting similar growth as well as future potential.
But what does an average scaleup business in Lancashire look like and what types of businesses make up the county’s scaleup economy?
Two Zero used data from Beauhurst to find key insights about Lancashire-headquartered scaleups such as turnover, staff, prominent sectors and the demographics of these companies’ leadership teams.
Staff and turnover
For the purposes of this article, we looked at ‘true’ scaleups in Lancashire, those consistently growing turnover or staff by 20% per year, as well as including a small minimum turnover figure to focus on established businesses.
There are 367 of these companies in Lancashire, with a combined turnover of £11.7bn, making the average turnover of a Lancashire scaleup £31.8m. This average is affected significantly by Lancashire’s largest scaleups, with the top five companies by turnover accounting for around £1.5bn in revenue between them.
There was a total of 59,780 people employed within Lancashire’s 367 scaleups, an average of 174 employees per company.
Sectors
Lancashire is well-known for its key industries including advanced manufacturing, defence, energy, professional services and the creative sector. However, the largest industry by percentage among the 367 scaleups is property development and construction, accounting for 10.9 per cent and including household Lancashire names such as Eric Wright Group.
Interestingly, no single industry dominates the top 10, although the manufacturing industry is split across several sectors including cars, motorcycles and other vehicles; food and drink processing; heating, ventilation, air conditioning and mechanical and electrical systems as well as a general manufacturing industry heading.
Applications software is tenth on the list, reflecting the county’s ecosystem of fast-growing technology companies.
The top 10 scaleup sectors are below:
- Property development and construction: 9%
- Tradespeople and trade services:63%
- Cars, motorcycles and other road vehicles:81%
- Distribution and wholesale:45%
- Manufacturing:63%
- Care homes:09%
- Food and drink processing:81%
- Heating, ventilation, air conditioning and mechanical and electrical systems:81%
- Repair, maintenance and servicing:81%
- Application software:54%
Leadership profile
The Beauhurst data highlights that a significant gender imbalance remains in the leadership of scaleup companies in Lancashire. 188 of the 367 companies had all male directors, compared to just five all female-led companies.
There were 88 companies with a majority of male directors, compared to 31 majority female. 33 companies had an even split between male and female directors.
In addition, the average age of the directors at these scaling companies in Lancashire has increased over time. In 2005, 24.7 per cent of these directors were in the 60+ bracket and this had grown to 29.1 per cent by 2025.
This trend is also reflected in the 30-39 bracket. In 2025, 13.3 per cent of directors were in this age bracket, shrinking to 7.7 by 2025. In addition, there has been a decline of directors aged 40-49 and growth in directors aged 50-59.
