An estate agent is named this morning in a list issued by the London Stock Exchange of companies expected to inspire Britain in 2015.

The Acorn Group, which was founded in 1984 and now has 22 branches in London and Kent, is one of 1,000 small and medium-size companies chosen on the basis of longevity and financial strength, and that they are growing much faster than their peers.

Last year Acorn had £20m turnover – up from £17.3m in 2013 and 12m in 2012.

Acorn chief executive Robert Sargent told Eye that while last year made it look as though each branch was getting revenue of nearly £1m, the picture was in fact skewed by other parts of the business, such as Land & New Homes, also bringing in money.

This is the second year that the LSE has brought out such a list of high-performing smaller companies across the UK.

It is thought that the underlying reason behind the project is to identify those companies with realistic prospects of floating on the stock market.

However, Sargent said that this not currently in his sights. He told Eye: “Our immediate plan is to continue to expand and retain private ownership, but flotation is something we could ultimately consider.

“Last year we had a fantastic first half, as so many agents did. However, while a lot of businesses found things tailed off in the second half, we didn’t – and this is what the LSE picked up on.

“That has fuelled our belief in what we are doing, and we do see more opportunities in the market, to make acquisitions and turbo-charge their performance.”

The group, whose brands are Acorn, Langford Russell and John Payne, is one of the larger backers of OnTheMarket, having given up listing on Zoopla.

Sargent said: “OnTheMarket has been very good. It has been brilliantly delivered by Ian Springett and his team and is gathering momentum.

“There has been no negative impact from coming off Zoopla, and we are now tracking sales from responses that we can identify as coming directly from OTM.

“We have had no negative feedback from vendors. The public are savvy and they do not take long to work out where to go on the internet to find properties.

“We have had a very good start to this year.”

The LSE’s 1,000 companies are here

Robert Sargent