NatWest Fast Growth Business of the Year 2011

Founded: 2006
Founder: Glenn Elliott
Turnover 2010: £28.5m
Turnover 2011: £79.2m
Web: www.asperity.co.uk

Five years ago, Glenn Elliott was doing pretty well for himself. After building his reputation with BT, he was running his own digital marketing agency, which had made the UK top 50 in Marketing Week and notched a string of high-profile clients.

But still the incessantly ambitious entrepreneur wanted more; he wanted to start a new kind of business, which would make a real difference to everyday people while carving its own vociferous niche. So Elliott sold his agency to a management buy-in team, and used the money to set up Asperity Employee Benefits. At the time the decision may have looked like a brain-freeze; now, it looks like a masterstroke.

Asperity is one of Britain's fastest-growing companies, having increased turnover from £29m to £79m in the financial year to June. Day-to-day operations are conducted in a three-floor office in Notting Hill, and Asperity now boasts international offices in Sydney and New York.

Elliott's initial vision was relatively simple; to create, as he describes it, “an employee discount programme that includes all the retailers people use every day, and pass the entire discount on to the employee”.

Right from the outset, Asperity has refused to take any commission from its suppliers; all of the benefit is passed on to the employee, “to ensure that the discount is better than the employee can get elsewhere”.

The site is, and has always been, 100% employer-funded – each partner is selected purely on merit, rather than on the amount they're prepared to pay in commission. And the end user remains the key driver of Asperity's business strategy.

Elliott says: “We've focused on the employer, and the employee. Most people in our market think the retailer is the client, but it's not. The employer is our client, and the employee is our customer. It's very difficult to have two masters, and people fall into the trap of thinking the retailer is the client.”

Elliott's team have worked tirelessly to secure discounts from established retailers, and the company now offers more than 3,000 discounts and offers – far more than any of its key rivals.

Clients have also been aggressively sought; since 2007 the company has added 650 new clients to its roster, including blue-chips such as BSkyB, Aviva, American Express and IBM. In the 12 months to 2011, 70% of Asperity's UK new business was won from clients who had never previously used an employee discount programme – clear evidence of its ability to impress its vision on an unfamiliar audience.

Stakeholder engagement

Everything is done to ensure clients are well looked after. Few employees have the time or inclination to deal with benefits during work time; consequently, the Asperity team is geared to operating at full capacity during evening hours.

Over 90% of employee enquiries are resolved at first contact, thanks to the resourcefulness of the customer service team, and Asperity has even developed its own ISO27001 accredited security system to protect end user details. Thanks largely to these policies, the company's client retention rate currently stands at 99%.

In addition to ensuring the loyalty of their customers, Asperity's senior managers have earned almost complete loyalty from their own staff. In fact, in a recent survey carried out by Best Companies for The Sunday Times Best Small Companies to Work For list, 99% of Asperity staff said they had complete faith in their leadership team.

Elliott believes this commitment is testament to the warm, transparent structure he and his managers have engendered. “We have a very open information culture. Apart from each other's salaries, there are no secrets. We still have a team meeting every Tuesday morning for half an hour, a quarterly business update every three months, followed by a big party.

It's a young team, there are 120 staff, and 110 of them are under 30, so the parties are really good fun! “We look long and hard to find people who are up to the standards we expect, and once they get here we give them a lot of responsibility. We have our own training academy, and our employees are empowered to develop their careers. They all know they work somewhere with integrity, and we never cut corners – with them or with our end users.”

Recent development

Although Asperity was purchased by Inflexion Private Equity for £25.5m in 2010, Elliott has remained in day-to-day control, with a 25% stake. The period of Inflexion's ownership has been characterised by steady, inexorable growth; over the last 12 months Asperity has opened its Sydney office and signed its biggest-ever client, while employee spend through the discounts site exceeds £25m per month.

The next few months will see the opening of a new office in Birmingham, and an increase in headcount at the New York base. Meanwhile, accolades and recognition continue to flood in.

In addition to its success at the Fast Growth Business Awards, where it won the prestigious NatWest Fast Growth Business of the Year title alongside the Service Business gong, Asperity was ranked the second fastest-growing technology business in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 chart in September 2011, and four of the company's clients were shortlisted for the ‘most effective use of a benefits plan' accolade at this year's Enterprise Benefits Awards ceremony. Judging by the progress made in recent months, further recognition is sure to follow in the near future.

Judges' comments: Asperity is still relatively youthful, but has grown fast and profitably in a short space of time, innovating and capitalising on a real desire for what it offers. Already trading successfully in international markets with plans for ambitious expansion overseas, customers love its products and give glowing testimonials. The sky, judges felt, really does seem to be the limit for Asperity.

Glenn Elliott, CEO, Asperity Employee Benefits said, “I'm really proud of everything the Asperity team has achieved over the last 4 years. It's through the hard work and dedication of all of our staff that we have been able to grow the company so quickly and with such excellent standards of customer and client service. Consistently high quality service is what powers this growth by building solid referrals and an excellent reputation.”

www.asperity.co.uk