Our Heritage

Our journey began in Manchester over 30 years ago. Since then, we've helped to generate hundreds of millions of pounds of investment, helped to upskill and place hundreds of thousands of people into work or progress their careers, whilst working with tens of thousands of businesses to start, grow, internationalise and become more environmentally sustainable.

We're proud of our heritage, our extensive footprint and that we are a leading ethical provider of outsourced services.

We're also proud to be an accredited social enterprise, which sets us apart. We strive for continuous improvement and our business model enables us to drive profits straight back into developing and delivering high-quality service provision.

1990

Starting life

The Growth Company starts life as The Manchester Training and Enterprise Council.

1990-99

Training and employment initiatives

We develop our own training and employment initiatives becoming the most innovative and entrepreneurial TEC in the country.

2000-04

Continued growth

We continue to grow our offer as other companies join the organisation, including Chamber Business Enterprises and Career Solutions.

2004

New contracts

We are recognised as the economic development organisation for Greater Manchester and expand as we win new contracts across the North West.

2006

Restructure

The organisation is restructured and becomes known as Manchester Solutions with a clear focus on delivery.

2007-09

Commercial offering

We develop our commercial offer as the Centre for Assessment and IDG join our organisation.

2012

Business Growth Hub

The Growth Company's Business Growth Hub is established and quickly becomes the leading business growth hub in the UK.

2015

Marketing Manchester and MIDAS

Marketing Manchester and MIDAS join the Growth Company family.

2017

Rebrand

National Skills Training and The Manufacturing Institute join our organisation.

We rebrand as the Growth Company to reflect the growing reach of our services in the UK.

2018

London office

We continue to innovate and grow. Our London office is launched.

2018

GC Angels

GC Angels established, working with entrepreneurs to grow and scale their businesses.

2021

ekosgen acquisition

The Growth Company announces the successful acquisition of ekosgen, one of the UK's leading independent companies providing economic and social research, analysis and consultancy advice.

2022

Social Enterprise ‘Gold Mark’

We were awarded the ‘Social Enterprise Gold Mark’ which reinforces our reputation and credibility as an organisation which demonstrates best practices across several key business areas that are central to social enterprise excellence.

2023

Green Skills Academy launches

The academy boasts innovative green technologies and a comprehensive training offer and will play a critical role in Greater Manchester’s ambitions to reach Net Zero carbon as early as 2038 and will work with businesses UK-wide in order to help hit the national 2050 target.

2023

Growth Flag

The Growth Company partnered with Red Flag Alert to launch ‘Growth Flag, a pioneering data intelligence online tool which shows where growth potential exists across the UK.

2023

Winning Moves acquisition and GC Insight launch

The Growth Company announces the acquisition of the support and research firm Winning Moves which leads to the launch of our new consulting brand - ‘GC Insight’, to reflect our expanded consulting offer.