Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | September 2, 2019 | wbjournal.com BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor Acton manufacturer leads the region in the magazine's annual small business growth listing Sparx Acton Business products, services $8 million 4916% 56 Definitive Healthcare Framingham Software $58.9 million 413% 1,020 Sustainable Comfort Worcester Construction $3.7 million 395% 1,061 ThinkLite Natick Manufacturing $35.3 million 190% 2,119 PrismHR Hopkinton Software $48.6 million 186% 2,157 ClearPlan Westborough Business products, services $22.2 million 177% 2,267 Envisage Marlborough IT management $6.2 million 122% 2,946 Ten24 Worcester Software $3.6 million 122% 3,039 Cinch IT Worcester IT management $2.3 million 116% 3,151 G&N Insurance Westborough Insurance $3.8 million 100% 3,510 Barrett Distribution Centers Franklin Logistics and transportation $110.9 million 80% 4,044 ListEngage Framingham Advertising and marketing $7.6 million 68% 4,407 CommCreative Framingham Advertising and marketing $11.1 million 57% 4,849 Access TCA Whitinsville Advertising and marketing $62.1 million 54% 4,944 2018 Three-year Company Location Type revenue growth Ranking Central Massachusetts' Inc. 5000 The annual Inc. 5000 list ranks the country's fastest-growing private companies. Here's where Central Massachusetts companies landed. Source: 2018 Inc. 5000 Inc. 5000's top New England firm A n Acton maker of ice skate sharpening equip- ment is the fastest-grow- ing private company in New England on Inc. magazine's new ranking. Sparx Hockey, which hit the market in 2016, has quickly spread in the hockey world, selling to 25 of the National Hockey League's 31 teams, including the Boston Bruins, as well as minor league and collegiate teams. Players today will oen switch skate blades multiple times a game, requir- ing quick and consistent blade-sharp- ening, a need Sparx has filled. "It just went from team to team to team, very virally," CEO and founder Russ Layton said of the company's growth. 5000% growth Sparx grew by 4,916% in the last three years, with 2018 revenue of $8 million, according to Inc., a busi- ness publication with an annual list of America's fastest-growing private companies with at least $2 million in revenue, known as the Inc. 5000. Sparx was tops in New England and 56th nationally. It landed eighth nation- ally among consumer products and services. "We couldn't believe it when we saw it," Layton said of the company's place on the Inc. list. Definitive Healthcare, a Fram- ingham health information services company, was 17th in Massachusetts and 1,020 nationally. Sustainable Comfort, a Worcester construction consultant, was 19th in the state and 1,061 nationally. Sparx has sold more than 15,000 stake-sharpening sets, nearly all in consumer's homes, and nearly all online. e company sells in only a few physical locations, including at the New England Sports Center, a multi- rink facility in Marlborough. A sharp future Sparx sells to the premiere Russian hockey league and is eyeing poten- tial growth in China as the country ramps up youth hockey participation ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. As youth hockey has spread in popularity to the South and West from hotbeds in the Northeast and Mid- west, Sparx has followed there as well, particularly in the Dallas and Southern California regions. e company is focusing in the shorter term on traditional hockey areas in the United States and Cana- da, including preliminary plans for a distribution facility in Canada. Layton, who grew up in New Jer- sey, tried unsuccessfully to join the Northeastern University hockey team in Boston, and then played in gradu- ate school. His career took him from engineering to mergers and acquisi- tions, and he eventually made a move into something to combine his love of hockey, an entrepreneurial mindset and skills as an engineer. He saw an opportunity to provide equipment not easily available in any retail store, and to fill an unavoidable need of sharpen- ing skates every so oen, especially at the professional level. Layton and two other engineers took a year or two to come up with the skate-sharpening equipment before launching the Sparx. Many of the company's 25 employees play hockey themselves, or have a player in the family. "I knew it was going to be a lot of work," Layton said. W Russ Layon started Sparx Hockey as someone with both an engineering background and a lifelong love for hockey. The company sold thousands of ice-skate sharpeners for use at rinks and homes.

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