The Stage

Bill Kenwright Ltd named one of UK’s fastest growing firms

Published Thursday 8 April 2004 at 15:05 by Ruth Gillespie

West End production company Bill Kenwright Limited has been listed in The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 league table as one of Britain’s fastest growing firms.

With profits rising by 66% a year from £722,000 in 1999 to £3.3 million in 2002, the company’s owner and managing director Bill Kenwright was listed 36th in the fifth annual league table, compiled by Fast Track - an independent research and networking events company.

Kenwright has put on more than 300 shows over the last 30 years including West Side Story, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Blood Brothers, which recently celebrated its 16th year in the West End.

He said: “I laughed when I heard this. I tried to tell The Sunday Times that the entertainment industry is unlike any other and I’m glad they didn’t go looking at figures for the following year’s accounts because on their schedule we would have been down some 400%.

“In our industry if you keep your head above water you are doing very well. I’m blessed that I do have hits like Blood Brothers and Joseph that, in the main, fund the other ventures I undertake.”

The company is currently working on a musical version of the Graham Greene novel Brighton Rock, which will be directed by Almeida artistic director Michael Attenborough and is expected to open in the West End later this year. The Glass Menagerie, starring Jessica Lange, is scheduled to open on Broadway in January.