Telecommunications
2015: No.25= - £130m
2014: No.24= - £130m 

Alan Jackson’s Intercity Telecom was rated “World Class” by the influential UK Customer Satisfaction Index, putting it in the company of brands such as John Lewis and First Direct. The firm was also named as a “Best Company – One to Watch” in 2014.

Customer relations are something Alan Jackson is passionate about, and he is proud of the fact that Intercity doesn’t use call centres and doesn’t use voice automation. Customers get to speak to real people in the UK and have their own dedicated account manager. This personal service has stood Intercity in good stead and helped the company grow its value.

Jackson set up his Birmingham-based telephone technology company back in 1985, just as the surge in demand for mobile communications was taking off. Now it is one of Europe’s leading providers of mobile, fixed line and cloud telephone services.

Intercity has well over 70,000 users and its parent company, Giftsign, is worth more than £76 million.

The company has expanded its portfolio beyond mobile communications to include fixed broadband telephone systems , Ethernet services, email hosting, bespoke communications systems and vehicle tracking.

Over the past 29 years Intercity Telecom – the firm was re-branded from Intercity Mobile in 2010 – has gone from strength to strength from its offices in Holloway Head, with Alan Jackson as non-executive chairman. The company also has offices in London, High Wycombe, Edinburgh, Manchester and Cardiff.

In 1994 the company secured its international credentials with the establishment of Intercity BV based in Amsterdam. It was the first UK company to be granted a licence for cellular services in The Netherlands.

Intercity – which achieved Investors in People status in 2013 – is now the UK’s largest independent cellular telephone service provider and is well established as a communications systems provider in the corporate sector, employing more than 270 people in the UK and The Netherlands and supplying more than 5,000 businesses of all sizes.

Intercity Telecom provides installation , aftersales support and everything in between, and is not tied to any particular manufacturer or network. Jackson, aged 62, has kept pace with technology and introduced cloud technology in 2007 before most people had heard of it.

Some of the company’s innovations include the transmission of handwritten or drawn information instantly using a digital pen and a Smartphone or mobile computer, and vehicle tracking technology allowing firms to keep track of company cars, vans or trucks through Mobile Eye digital technology.

The company supports a number of charities including the Acorns Hospice and Birmingham Children’s Hospital and also sponsors a motorsport team.