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Sunday Times Fast Track 100
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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,[1] and alumni dinners during the year. The list is researched and produced by Fast Track, an Oxford-based research and networking events business.[2] Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group have supported the Fast Track 100 league table since Hamish Stevenson founded Fast Track in 1997.[3]
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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[3] by Hamish Stevenson,[4][2] it eventually published seven annual league tables and brought company founders and directors together at invitation-only networking awards events and alumni dinners.[5]
The company ceased business operations in 2022 as a result of the pandemic, which made its business model unviable.
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Entry criteria
Companies have to meet the criteria below[6][7] 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,[8]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
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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"[9][10] 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;[11] 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,[12] Boden and Travelex, innocent[13] and Fever-Tree.[14][15] The first Fast Track 100 league table in 1997 featured ARM Holdings with sales of just £17 million.[12][16] It was sold to SoftBank for in 2016 for £24.4 billion.[17]
More recently Fast Track 100 has tracked the progress of a new generation of private companies such as craft brewer Brewdog,[18][19] beauty products retailer Charlotte Tilbury, and gym group PureGym.[20]
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Latest Fast Track 100 list
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The 24th annual Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table supplement was published on 6 December 2020[21] and featured companies such as BrewDog, reusable bottle brand Chilly's Bottles,[22] fitness clothing retailer Gymshark,[23] online jewellery brand Missoma[24][25] and designer menswear retailer END.[26]
2019 Top 100 rankings
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Previous rankings
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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
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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
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References
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