The DOLPHIN Group of Meylan, France, provider of products and services for the Design Industry of Microelectronics, today announced that it has been listed 221 amongst the fastest growing European companies included in the 2003 Europe’s 500, an annual listing endorsed by 3i, Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The Europe’s 500 listing identifies and honours rapidly growing European companies for their employment creation.
“The Europe’s 500 selection shows that high growth is not industry driven or even country specific: it is driven by talented, innovative, risk-taking entrepreneurs,” said Antonella Mei-Pochtler, Senior Vice President of the Boston Consulting Group.
“After the Internet boom and crash, today’s high growth companies are focused on more solid business models. The weaker companies have been flushed out and we are left with much healthier, professional and profitable projects,” said Peter Kazimirski, European Leader, High Growth Companies Program of Pricewaterhouse-Coopers.
About Europe’s 500
Europe’s 500 has been published annually since it was launched in 1996 as an initiative of GrowthPlus, the association for dynamic entrepreneurs. Its focus on medium sized enterprises is unique and distinguishes it from other business rankings.
Companies from the 15 EU member states, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland were able to nominate themselves for the 2003 edition. In a reflection of tough economic times, only 247 companies from 17 countries (all except Luxemburg) actually met the listing’s strict criteria this year but together they have created more than 111,000 jobs.
Europe’s 500 judges company performance over five fiscal years (end 1997 – end 2002). Seven criteria are used to qualify companies: entrepreneurial involvement; independence; growth in turnover (at least 50%) and employment (at least 30%); organic growth; profitability; size (minimum 50 employees at end 2002) and operational for at least 3 years. All companies in the 2003 listing had a “David Birch Employee Growth Index” equal to, or higher than, the Europe’s 500 ranking last year.
“We are proud to have made the Europe’s 500 list,” said Dolphin’s CEO, Michel Depeyrot, “and especially to be ranked moderately since perennial job creation must proceed with once with increasing productivity per person for financial soundness. The David Birch Employee Growth Index is a healthy criterion for us, since our sales rate per person is increasing steadily. And this is certainly due to the high motivation of our culturally diverse personnel.”
About DOLPHIN Group
Dolphin Integration is registered on the OTC of EuroNext since March 2003 (MLDOL) and more information is provided at www.dolphin-integration.com
