Region’s firms ranked in Fast Track 100
Six Yorkshire businesses have made it onto the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing sales.
The six companies, which include three new entrants, have seen their sales grow by an average of 68% a year over three years to a total of £298m, and together they employ 1,200 people.
The region’s top-ranked company is Heck! Food, which ranks 21 nationally. Husband-and-wife team Andrew and Debbie Keeble, both 52, launched the premium sausage, burger and meatball brand in 2004 and have grown it to sales of £17.6m in 2017. In October, the company opened a £3.5m factory in Bedale, North Yorkshire.
Leeds-based PureGym features for a fifth year in a row. The company runs 189 low-cost gyms, with most open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It was bought by US private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners in November in a deal expected to value the firm at around £600m.
Among the new entrants is furniture designer and manufacturer naughtone, whose customers include Google and Microsoft. The company opened showrooms in London in 2015 and Chicago last year, helping 2017 sales to hit £15.2m.
The companies in Yorkshire appear with businesses from around Britain, including restaurant chains Five Guys and Leon, fashion retailer Missguided, and brewer BrewDog, which was valued at £1bn in April. Past stars include mixer drinks maker Fever-Tree, which floated in 2014 and is now worth £2.3bn, and innocent drinks, which sold a majority stake to Coca-Cola in 2013, valuing the company at £440m.
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 21 years, said: “Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of the economy; driving innovation, creating jobs and challenging industry norms. The achievements of the companies on this year’s Fast Track 100 list are fantastic. It’s clear over the coming years UK business will have to adapt to different conditions and we must do all we can to support our entrepreneurs – who will be the engines of growth for Britain.”
