Inside Vesper Technologies’ rise to the top of the North West Fastest 50

Stockport-based Vesper Technologies was named 2026’s overall winner and fastest growing large business with its specialist work in data centre infrastructure helping the company achieve average annual turnover growth of 154.83%.

Here, we speak to Allan Kaye, Co-founder and Managing Director of Vesper Technologies, alongside Liz Bottrill, Executive Partner in Ward Hadaway’s Manchester office, about how the company has turned ambition into growth, the challenges of operating in a fast-moving technology market and the investment needed to support its next phase.

Vesper Technologies provides consultancy and infrastructure to organisations investing in AI, high-performance computing, networking and storage. Demand is accelerating as AI changes customer requirements, but projects are also becoming more complex, with businesses having to navigate new technology, supply chain pressures, pricing volatility and higher expectations around power, cooling and performance.

Q: What was the most important decision you made over the past year that helped turn your ambition for the business into growth?

For Vesper Technologies, growth has been about staying clear on where the business could add the most value. In a market full of new opportunities, the company has resisted the temptation to broaden too far and has continued to build around the specialist work its customers rely on.

Allan says: “It’s difficult to point to one single decision because growth has been the result of a lot of consistent decisions over time. Two things stand out, though – the first is our continued focus on building strong strategic relationships with a small number of key partners, including NVIDIA, Supermicro and Lenovo, rather than spreading ourselves too thin across lots of vendors.

“The second is staying focused on what we do best. There has always been pressure to diversify, but we’ve remained committed to consultancy and the supply of data centre infrastructure. That’s where we add the most value for our customers and keeping that focus has been an important part of our growth.”

That discipline is vital in a market where customers are making decisions that will affect the performance, capacity and resilience of their infrastructure for years to come. As AI places greater demands on computing power, cooling and networking, Vesper’s role is increasingly about helping organisations make those decisions with confidence.

Q: What has been the hardest part of growing the business this year?

Vesper’s expansion has come during a period of intense change for the AI infrastructure market, where customer demand is rising but projects have become harder to plan with certainty.

Allan explains: “Earlier this year, the industry saw a sudden shift in memory and flash pricing, alongside extended lead times across many products. Pricing changed almost overnight, back orders were affected, and we had to adapt how we quoted, planned and delivered projects at short notice. More broadly, AI infrastructure isn’t standing still. New platforms, evolving networking and cooling technologies, together with changing tariffs, trade regulations and global supply chain pressures, have all made delivering infrastructure projects more complex than ever.”

“What kept us going was recognising that it was an industry-wide challenge rather than something unique to us. We focused on communicating openly with customers, adapting quickly and, knowing that once the initial volatility settled, the market would become more predictable again.”

Q: When you look at the next stage of growth, what will the business need to invest in properly?

The priority now is to make sure the business can keep growing well, not just quickly.

Allan says: “Growth brings its own demands, so the next phase is really about strengthening the foundations. That means continuing to invest in our people, refining our operational processes and systems and expanding our facilities to support a larger business. We’re already progressing plans to refurbish and extend our offices so that our workspace grows alongside the team and the services we deliver.”

Liz Bottrill, Executive Partner in Ward Hadaway’s Manchester office, said: “Vesper Technologies shows how ambition is often backed by discipline as much as pace. The business has grown quickly, but it has done so by being selective about where it competes and by building the partnerships and customer relationships needed to deliver in a complex market.

“In a sector moving as quickly as AI infrastructure, there will always be pressure to keep extending into new areas. What stands out about Vesper is that its growth has been built on knowing what to prioritise, staying close to customers and investing in the capacity it needs for the next phase.

“That is why the Fastest 50 remains such an important platform. It recognises companies that are achieving strong growth, while also showing the decisions behind that growth and the contribution they are making to the wider North West economy. Vesper’s achievement reflects the ambition, expertise and enterprise we are seeing across the region.”