Firms fly flag for the West Midlands in Fast Track 100 league table
Six West Midlands companies have staked their place on an elite list which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing sales.
The region’s top-ranked company in the annual Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table is Solihull-based fitness clothing retailer Gymshark, which is ranked 10th nationally.
Founded in 2012 by Ben Francis, then aged 19, in his parents’ garage, it was No 1 on Fast Track 100 in 2016, and now sells its clothing directly to consumers in 178 countries via 13 multilingual websites. It grew its sales by an average of 141% a year over the last three years to £179.5m in 2019.
New entrants include Kingswinford-based home lift manufacturer Stiltz Lifts, whose lifts plug into domestic electricity sockets. Sales grew 82% over three years to £19m last year.
Sports nutrition brand Grenade features for a sixth time on the Fast Track 100 league table. The Solihull-based firm sells its products to customers including special forces soldiers and professional athletes. Sales growth averaged 73% per year over three years, growing to £44m last year.
Also making the list were Wolverhampton-based toilet paper manufacturer Task Consumer Products, Birmingham-based waste collection company Clearabee, and Worcestershire-based contract caterer Aspens services.
The companies in the Midlands appear with businesses from around Britain, including jewellery brand Missoma, beauty products retailer Revolution Beauty, and brewer BrewDog. Past stars include chip designer ARM, which featured in 1997 with sales of £17m, floated and was acquired by Japan’s SoftBank in 2016 for £24bn; and mixer drinks maker Fever-Tree, which floated in 2014 at £154m and is now worth £2.6bn.
Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Group, which has supported Fast Track 100 for all 23 years, said: “While these are uncertain times, there is one thing I am certain of: entrepreneurs are the ones driving innovation, chasing improvements and challenging the norm. There are so many inspiring examples of this on the Fast Track 100 league table and it’s heartening to see the power of entrepreneurship to create jobs and positive change across Britain.”
The Fast Track 100 is sponsored by Virgin Atlantic, Barclays, BDO, BGF and N+1 Singer, and is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events firm.
