Lucky 13 companies in the Fast Track 100
SOME 13 companies in the North West have won places in the 20th anniversary Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table ranking UK private companies with the fastest growing sales.
The 13 companies – compared to eight last year – include seven new entrants to the league table.
Their sales have grown by an average of 95% a year over three years to a total of £362m, and together they now employ nearly 2,000 people.
The region’s top-ranked company is Chemist-4-U.com, which is a new entrant ranked in the top three.
Sales in Britain, Germany and Denmark helped the Skelmersdale-based online pharmacy grow sales to £16.9m last year, and it hopes to expand into France and Scandinavia.
The companies in the North West appear with businesses from around the UK, including appliance manufacturer Gtech, brewer BrewDog, and restaurant operator Bill’s.
Since the first league table was published in 1997, Fast Track 100 has featured many of Britain’s most successful companies.
Past stars from the North West include Cheshire-based Pets at Home, which first featured in 1999 with sales of £6.6m, now has sales of £793m and is worth £1.2bn after floating on the stock market in 2014; Blackburn-based fuel forecourt operator Euro Garages, which merged with EFR in October to create a €6bn group; and Liverpool-based discount retailer B&M Retail, which is worth £2.6bn after floating on the stock market in 2014.
The Fast Track 100 is sponsored by Virgin, Barclays, BDO, BGF and Virgin Media Business, and is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm.
Sir Richard Branson of Virgin, the title sponsor for all 20 years, said:“For 20 years, the Fast Track 100 has checked the country’s entrepreneurial pulse, and highlighted the best and brightest talents emerging from the UK – this year is no exception.
“When I started up in business almost 50 years ago, the word entrepreneur wasn’t really known. Now everyone knows entrepreneurs are the job makers and innovation stimulators of the world. More importantly, many, many more people want to join the club, and change business for good.”
