Three friends who launched their own business during lockdown are celebrating after doubling their turnover in the last 12 months surpassing one million pounds for the first time.

Marketing agency Alphageek Digital has reached the impressive milestone after less than five years in business during which it has picked up more than 50 clients based across four continents.

Despite negotiating a global pandemic and worldwide recession the firm’s annual turnover passed £1.2 million in the last financial year, more than a 50% growth on the previous year, with continued progress already this year.

With a series of new client wins soon to be announced, the agency, which was founded by friends Art Lindop, Alex Mills and Kieran Flynn, is committed to further sustainable expansion during 2024.

Managing director Art Lindop said: “When we launched Alphageek Digital back in 2020 it was an exciting time for the industry – everyone was moving online and so we were in our absolute element.

The true test was when business returned to normal, but by then we had begun making a name for ourselves and were working with some high-profile clients, so we’ve never looked back.”

He added: “This fiscal year has been outstanding for us and we’re really proud of everything we have achieved. We’re a very ambitious team operating in a young and dynamic industry and every day we’re proving that you don’t need to be a big London agency to win international clients.

The entire team has worked together to create a set of brand values that we are very much aligned with and I believe we have surrounded ourselves with an excellent crew, so the future is really bright for Alphageek.”

The company, which has offices in Century House on Friar Gate, employs a team of over 20 and specialises in paid advertising, content creation and social media / brand amplification services.

At the end of last year, the agency announced that during Black Friday it had brought in revenue of just over £1.5m across just 10 of its clients, generating almost 800,000 engagements, nearly 195,000 clicks and more than 6,000 leads.

Derby entrepreneur Dean Jackson, who owns HUUB, a world leader in wetsuits, triathlon and cycle clothing praised the company for orchestrating its ‘best ever’ Google Ads campaign which drove a record breaking £1 million of annual Google ads revenue for the firm.

HUUB is just one of a number of national and international clients for Alphageek which also works with Casio, G-Shock, Project D, Little Caesars and EMR.

Art continued: “I’m really excited to see what Alphageek can achieve in the next five years. We work with some great names, but we ensure that none of our clients take up such a big percentage of the company that should they need to dial down their spend with us it will impact Alphageek negatively.

We’re a global business now but our roots are very much in Derby and we want to create a business which gives talented people a chance and that the city is proud of.”