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The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 was an annual league table published in association with The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK. It ranks Britain's 100 private companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years. It is published in The Sunday Times each December, with a conference and awards event typically held in May, and alumni dinners during the year. The list is researched and produced by Fast Track, an Oxford-based research and networking events business. Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group have supported the Fast Track 100 league table since Hamish Stevenson founded Fast Track in 1997.

About Fast Track

Fast Track was a research and events company that built a network of the UK's top-performing private companies, from the fastest-growing to the biggest, through its rankings in The Sunday Times. Founded in 1997 by Hamish Stevenson, it eventually published seven annual league tables and brought company founders and directors together at invitation-only networking awards events and alumni dinners.

The company ceased business operations in 2022 as a result of the pandemic, which made its business model unviable.

Entry criteria

Companies have to meet the criteria below to be able to enter the Fast Track 100 league table:

• UK registered, unquoted, and not subsidiary
• Sales of at least £250,000 in the base year of trading (latest year minus 3 years)
• Sales of at least £5m in the latest year
• Ten or more employees in the latest year
• Operating profit of at least £500,00 in the latest year
• Year-on-year sales growth in the latest year
• Trading weeks in the base and latest years have to exceed 25
• Recruitment firms, payroll services providers, energy firms and media agencies are required to have gross profits of at least £5m. Sales for recruitment and payroll firms are the total amount invoiced to clients; media agencies' sales are net of advertising spend on behalf of clients

Companies that do not meet all the criteria can still be considered for the Ones to Watch programme,y particularly if they forecast good sales growth.

Exclusions

• Technology, digital media and telecoms (TMT) companies (which appear on Tech Track 100)
• LLPs, pure property and financial trading companies, and companies with sales of over £500m

Limitations

The Fast Track 100 league table is promoted as the definitive guide to the fastest growing privately held companies in the UK, with Richard Branson describing it as "the barometer of private company growth" However, the research limitations - most small private companies do not file accounts - mean that the list may not cover all fast growing private companies.

Sales figures filed in accounts with Companies House also reflect a trading period ending up to ten months prior to filing. The majority of sales figures published in Fast Track 100 are more up to date than that. For instance, on the 2019 Fast Track 100 league table, 65 companies supplied Fast Track with a sales figure for their latest year of trading that was not available at Companies House; 35 companies had filed accounts, but in many instances their prior years' trading figures were not publicly available, making it impossible to calculate their sales growth over a number of years.

Notable alumni companies

Fast Track 100 is responsible for the early identification of a number of household names, including Carphone Warehouse, Boden and Travelex, innocent and Fever-Tree. The first Fast Track 100 league table in 1997 featured ARM Holdings with sales of just £17 million. It was sold to SoftBank for in 2016 for £24.4 billion.

More recently Fast Track 100 has tracked the progress of a new generation of private companies such as craft brewer Brewdog, beauty products retailer Charlotte Tilbury, and gym group PureGym.

Latest Fast Track 100 list

The 24th annual Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table supplement was published on 6 December 2020 and featured companies such as BrewDog, reusable bottle brand Chilly's Bottles, fitness clothing retailer Gymshark, online jewellery brand Missoma and designer menswear retailer END.

2019 Top 100 rankings

Previous rankings

2018 Top 20 rankings

2017 Top 20 rankings

2016 Abbreviated rankings

2015 Abbreviated rankings

2013 Abbreviated rankings

2012 Abbreviated rankings

2011 Abbreviated rankings

2010 Abbreviated rankings

2009 Abbreviated rankings

2008 Abbreviated rankings

2007 Abbreviated rankings

Other Fast Track publications

Fast Track 100 is one of seven league tables of private companies produced by Fast Track and published in The Sunday Times:

• Fast Track 100 – ranks the UK's fastest-growing private companies based on sales (excluding TMT companies, which appear in Tech Track 100 (see below)
• SME Export Track 100 – ranks the UK's SMEs with the fastest-growing international sales
• Tech Track 100 – ranks the UK's fastest-growing private technology companies based on sales (the sister table to Fast Track 100)
• International Track 200 – ranks the UK's private mid-market companies with the fastest-growing overseas sales
• Profit Track 100 – ranks the UK's private companies with the fastest-growing profits
• Top Track 250 – ranks the UK's leading mid-market private companies based on sales and/or profits growth
• Top Track 100 – ranks the UK's biggest private companies based on sales

References

1. "Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 awards". The Sunday Times. 19 May 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
2. ^ "Branson helps open new Fast Track office". Oxford Mail. 16 July 2001. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
3. ^ "Business: British companies 'inspiring'". The Independent. 8 December 1997. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
4. "Fast Track Ltd". Fast Track. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
5. "The Fast Track". Peoplevox. 9 August 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
6. "Search is on for the fastest-growing firms". The Sunday Times. 16 September 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
7. "Fast Track 100 entry criteria". Fast Track. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
8. Hounslea, Tara (2 February 2017). "The Drapers Interview: Chi Chi London's fast track to phenomenal growth". Drapers. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
9. Ord, Matthew (29 November 2018). "North West firms ranked among Fast Track 100". Insider Media. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
10. "Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of UK business". Virgin. 17 December 2018. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
11. "2019 Fast Track 100 league table". Fast Track. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
12. ^ Loizou, Kiki (28 May 2017). "Face it, we're addicted to growth". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
13. Ellson, Andrew (18 May 2005). "Fast Track 100 winners named". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
14. "Fever-Tree company profile". CommonwealthFirst. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
15. "Fever-Tree History". Fever-Tree.
16. "1997 Sunday TImes Fast Track 100 league table". Fast Track. December 1997. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
17. "ARM chip designer stake 'to be sold by Softbank'". BBC. 8 March 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
18. "Life in the Fast Track: BrewDog becomes the only business to be named as one of Britain's fastest-growing companies for a record sixth consecutive year". BrewDog presshub. 5 December 2017. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
19. "BrewDog history". BrewDog. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
20. Anstey, Tom (13 December 2013). "Pure Gym tops leisure industry in Fast Track 100". Health Club Management. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
21. "2019 Fast Track 100 supplement" (PDF). The Sunday Times. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
22. Kelly, Liam (5 January 2020). "Chilly's saving the planet one bottle at a time". The Times. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
23. Jones, Tamlyn (29 November 2018). "Fitness brands Gymshark and Grenade among UK's fastest-growing firms". BusinessLive. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
24. De Klerk, Amy (14 March 2019). "#The Brand | How Missoma developed into the booming jewellery label that it is today". Harpers Bazaar. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
25. Kelly, Liam (7 July 2019). "Marisa Hordern, founder of Missoma: Meghan Markle sparkle fired up profits". The Times. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
26. Ford, Coreena (5 April 2018). "Newcastle fashions retailer END is one of UK's fastest growing companies". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 17 April 2020.
27. "2019 Fast Track 100 league table". Fast Track. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
28. TWK. "League table - Fast Track". Fast Track. Retrieved 5 July 2018.
29. ^ Harker, Jonathon (27 May 2010). "Sir Richard Branson hands over Cyclescheme award". Retrieved 18 July 2010. Brompton also picks up 'Ones to Recognise' prize at Fast Track 100 event

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