Witherslack Group among winners of Deloitte’s UK Best Managed Companies 2025

The UK’s Best Managed Companies programme shines a spotlight on private businesses from across the UK and the performance that drives them. The programme is an initiative of Deloitte Private, which provides personalised solutions to privately owned businesses and family enterprises.

This is the inaugural year of the UK’s Best Managed Companies awards, with the programme already established in over 45 geographies across the world. It recognises top private companies for their organisational success and contributions to their industry and the economy.

Companies from around the UK were represented among the winners, encompassing a variety of industries such as construction, hospitality, education and technology.

In the North West, two businesses were among the ten winners. QBS Technology Group, based in Alderley Edge, is a single-source procurement platform for over 12,500 software publishers and is a key player in the enterprise software distribution landscape.

Meanwhile, in Cumbria, Witherslack Group is a leading education provider for children and young people with special educational needs, with over 65,000 parents, carers and professionals all accessing its free advice and support.

The full list of successful companies is:

Claire Evans, the UK’s Best Managed Companies Leader at Deloitte, said: “Private businesses play a vital role in our economy. They lead the way on purpose, innovation, creating employment and importantly, in driving nationwide growth and prosperity. This is what has underpinned our motivation in launching this global awards programme in the UK, bringing private businesses together to recognise their excellence and success.”

The Best Managed Companies awards programme is an international awards programme that applies an evaluation process, to assess the quality of business management in a variety of areas. They include strategy, capabilities and innovation, culture and commitment, as well as governance and finance.

Entrants to the programme undertake a rigorous and independent process that evaluates their management skills and practices. This includes having their business strategy process and operations reviewed and benchmarked against an evaluation framework applied to a winner community of more than 1,300 best-managed private companies across the world.