Congratulations to all on The Sunday Times 2019’s league-table which ranks Britain’s private companies with the fastest-growing sales
Reusable bottle brand Chilly’s topped the league table at No 1. Set up in 2010 by two former colleagues with £9,000 from the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, Chilly’s sales hit £32m this year, with a third of its sales overseas. Other well-known brands to feature include pizzeria operator Pizza Pilgrims (No 82) and Strathberry (No 16), a luxury handbag designer whose founders met at a wedding, got married, and then started a business together.
In addition, more than 400 of the 1,633 companies that have featured on the Fast Track 100 have been acquired. This includes the likes of Moonpig, which featured in 2009 and was acquired by PhotoBox in 2011 for £120m and smoothie maker Innocent, which appeared on five league tables before it was bought by Coca-Cola in 2013 in a £440m deal.
This year’s league table included 28 female founders, co-founders or chief executives running 26 businesses, a record high, and up from only 7 in 1997 when the league table was first published. They include beauty products retailer Charlotte Tilbury (No 46), and Child’s Farm (No 9), a skin care company started by ex-investment banker Joanna Jensen after her daughter developed sensitive skin.
We hope this cohort will go on to follow the success of many of the past companies to feature. For example FeverTree floated in 2014 valued at £154m and is now worth £2.6bn.
Read the full list at Fasttrack.co.uk