Providing IT services to clients ranging from Sunderland Football Club to Linda McCartney Foods helped this Gateshead firm increase sales to £7.3m in 2015. It has 75 employees and a second base in London, and specialises in managed IT support, datacentres and communications services. Managing director Nigel Begg, 43, set up the company in 2006 with co-founder Chris Fraser, 34, on returning to northeast England after many years working as an IT consultant in London.