Making the Financial Times FT1000 list of Europe’s fastest growing companies once is an achievement.
Making it twice tells a much bigger story.
Commercial asset specialists NCM Auctions have returned to the FT1000 ranking in 2026, marking the second time the Doncaster-founded business has appeared in the prestigious list compiled annually by the Financial Times and Statista.
The company first appeared in 2021, ranked 365th. Five years later, NCM returns at number 545, reflecting sustained growth that has seen the business expand from £2.5 million in revenue to £10 million.
But the most remarkable part of the story is not the ranking.
Across a list of 1,000 of Europe’s fastest growing businesses, spanning technology, finance, manufacturing and consumer brands, NCM remains the only auction house to have appeared…twice.
For a sector often seen as traditional and slow to change, that says a lot about the company’s different approach.
Founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Emma McSkelly, NCM was built on a simple idea, that surplus assets should be treated as an opportunity, not an afterthought.
At the time, the commercial auction world was still operating much as it had for decades. Assets were sold through limited channels, with minimal marketing and little strategic thought behind them.
Emma believed the model needed rethinking.
Rather than simply running auctions, NCM began building commercial asset strategies for its clients. That meant valuation and surveying, sales planning, targeted marketing, buyer matching, and full-site services to manage everything from extraction and clearance to sustainability reporting.
The goal was simple. Turn surplus equipment and commercial assets into a strategic advantage rather than a logistical problem.
Over the past decade, that approach has transformed the scale and impact of the business.
NCM works with organisations across all sectors, from hospitality and hotels to manufacturing, engineering, education and retail, helping companies unlock value from surplus assets while keeping them in productive use. Clients include Claridge’s, Aston Martin, HelloFresh, Frasers Group, DHL, Poundland, Kodak, Speedy Hire, Weetabix and Wembley Stadium.
For Emma, returning to the FT1000 list reflects something more important than a ranking.
“What matters is building something that lasts. Appearing on the FT1000 again shows that the growth we’ve achieved isn’t a one-off moment. It’s the result of building a model that genuinely works for modern businesses.”
NCM was founded as a small, bootstrapped startup in Doncaster, built without external investment and grown through reinvestment and the determination to shake up an industry and lead it. Today, it sits among a small group of UK scale-up businesses that have achieved rapid and sustained growth.
It also adds to the growing number of female-founded companies reaching significant scale. Female-led businesses now represent around 18 percent of UK companies, with increasing numbers entering the high growth scale-up category.
For Emma, that progress is slow, but encouraging.
“We’re seeing more women building ambitious businesses and scaling them successfully,” she says. “The more visible those stories become, the more they encourage the next generation of founders to think bigger.”
Since its first FT1000 appearance in 2021, NCM has continued to expand both its services and its reach. The company has invested heavily in marketing, technology and international buyer networks, helping connect surplus commercial assets with buyers across the UK and globally.
That growth has seen the business strengthen its end-to-end asset management services, supporting increasingly complex multi-site projects for major organisations and leading brands.
With growing pressure for these organisations to operate more efficiently, reduce waste and demonstrate measurable ESG benefits. Their surplus equipment represents both a challenge and an opportunity.
NCM turns that challenge into value, generating revenue, while ensuring assets remain in circulation through resale, reuse, and redistribution.
Appearing in the FT1000 for a second time is the next part of NCM’s incredible growth story. But if anything, it suggests there are bigger chapters ahead.
As Emma puts it, “We started NCM to challenge how this industry works. The fact that we’re the only auction business to appear on the FT1000, and to do it twice, shows that doing things differently really can pay off.”
