Declared as one of the nation”™s fastest-growing private companies on the Inc. 5000 list, CABLEready in Norwalk has not rested on the laurels of its rank.
Placing No. 2,243, the international cable TV program distributor and developer had revenues of $7 million in 2006. That number more than doubled to $15 million in 2009. CABLEready has licensed programs like “Inside the Actor”™s Studio” and “Forensic Files” to U.S. cable networks.
For the fourth year in a row, CABLEready has made the Inc. 5000 list and has consecutively risen in rank, which Senior Vice President of Operations Lou Occhicone says is a positive performance indicator.
“We currently have 11 employees and we”™ve been around 11-13 years,” he said. “When we got the first Inc. 5000 four years ago, we hired two people and it worked really well. We started a new company called CABLEready Productions, which actually produces shows and sends them all over the world to TV stations. We recently just hired two senior executives and we”™re always looking for new, good sales people. We”™re a sales-focused company. We”™ve discussed opening a potential satellite office in London and maybe a West Coast office in L.A. in a year or two.”
Also a sales-driven company, Mercury Solar Systems in Port Chester, N.Y., ranked No. 337 on the Inc. 500 list this year and was also named the 10th fastest-growing energy company.
It was ranked 32nd fastest-growing company in the New York metropolitan area.
“The growth that we”™ve experienced in sales has given us the opportunity to expand in other areas,” said Jared Haines, president and cofounder of Mercury Solar Systems. “Solar projects are very back-office, resource intensive projects, so you need to have permitting, rebates approved by the state, interconnection agreements done with the utility.”¦ We”™ve expanded a little bit on the sales end, but more so on the middle operations of the business handling paperwork”¦ and on the installation end, where you have electricians and laborers and construction people that we”™ve added to the team as well, to meet the additional demand.”
Mercury Solar Systems, a subsidiary of solar energy system provider Mercury Energy, has acquired four solar and energy companies and experienced 870 percent growth in total over the course of a three-year period.
The company, which relocated to a 20,000-square-foot office and warehouse in Port Chester from New Rochelle last year, will be installing solar paneled carport structures at six Long Island train stations in New York.
Mercury has about 70 employees in Port Chester, and expects to grow to 100 by the end of the year, Haines said.