While the economy may only be growing slowly, the leaders of this year’s Sunday Times 100 companies have their hands on the throttle. The bar to gain a place on our annual ranking of Britain’s fastest-growing private companies has never been higher. This year businesses had to achieve a staggering 62 per cent average increase in revenues, sustained over three years of trading.
Such rates of growth would have placed a company at No 80 on last year’s ranking; this year the Redditch-based athleisure brand AYBL — a former No 1 — makes its third appearance at No 100, with an average annual growth rate of 61.89 per cent, taking its annual sales to £38.8 million.
One of AYBL’s customers, Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, was sporting its wares when she covered the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in a McDonald’s banana milkshake in Clacton at the start of June. More constructively, AYBL and the other 99 featured companies have created 10,000 news jobs in the past three years, taking their total headcount to 13,670 people. Today they are more established — the companies need to generate at least £5 million in annual sales, as well as make a profit, to appear. As a result they plan to continue hiring, adding 3,800 new jobs in the next 12 months alone.
• Explore the full list of companies on this year’s Sunday Times 100 — plus interviews, company profiles and more
The fried-chicken chain Wingstop UK (No 38), loved by rappers such as Central Cee, Stormzy and AJ Tracey, intends to create 1,000 on its own as it opens restaurants across the country. Perhaps whoever finds themselves in Downing Street after the general election should declare themselves fans as well.
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Collectively, The Sunday Times 100 generated sales of £2.9 billion, a massive increase of £2.6 billion in the past three years of trading. With more jobs planned, that turnover figure is only set to rise further.
Across the economy trading conditions remain tough for many businesses, so the performance of this year’s elite 100 companies deserves particular recognition. They’ve absorbed higher wage bills, skills shortages and patchy consumer and business demand, and still found ways to achieve their goals.
Jeremy Clarkson may back Britain’s fastest-growing beer brand, Hawkstone (No 24), but he knows that, like farming, the pub trade that his brewery relies on to distribute its beer is facing difficulties. The 64-year-old depicts his battle to make ends meet at his 1,000-acre Diddly Squat farm in the Cotswolds in his popular Clarkson’s Farm series on Amazon Prime Video.
Clarkson’s media profile may have helped sales at Hawkstone, but most of the founders of this year’s companies have had to find other ways to cut through. Castore, the Manchester-based sportswear brand founded by the brothers Tom and Phil Beahon, 34 and 31 respectively, and ranked this year at No 34, has struck deals with high-profile sports teams. This month the Premier League club Everton became the latest, with Castore providing kits for its women’s and men’s teams, as well as official merchandise. The Wetherby furniture maker Akula Living (No 85) also has big-name customers, such the cruise lines Carnival, Holland America and Princess. Last year its founder, Tim Appleton, 56, sent 22,000 custom pieces to the Dubai luxury hotel Atlantis The Royal — 44 of its rooms have their own private infinity pool.
• What it takes to make The Sunday Times 100
Five key facts about the Sunday Times Hundred 2024
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Inventors make their mark on the table this year. The serial entrepreneur Alan Rock, 65, set up Warwick-based Moasure (No 40) in 2014 after designing a handheld tool to track distance and height. It is used by building contractors to measure large outdoor spaces. The team at the Nottingham consultancy Bigspark (No 48) have taken time out from their work on corporate information technology to develop MyNara, a smartphone app that gives victims of domestic abuse a way to discreetly capture evidence.
Bigspark’s three founders — Shaine Ismail, 48, Chris Finlayson, 38, and Richard Hay, 47 — previously worked together at NatWest before taking the plunge in 2019. The leap from a successful banking career into the murky world of entrepreneurship can be daunting. Richard Davies, the chief executive of this year’s No 1 ranked business, the fintech bank Allica, describes the sliding doors moment when he was headhunted from Barclays to help set up another challenger bank called OakNorth. “I was running the multinational corporate division and OakNorth was just about to get going,” the 45-year-old recalls. “I thought long and hard about it as I was doing pretty well at Barclays. Until that point I had envisaged an ongoing major bank career. While it seemed risky, it felt like a thing I would regret not doing. How often do people start banks?”
• Inside the UK’s hottest new start-ups — with founders under 35
Britain’s financial services sector may provide one source of talent, but it by no means has a monopoly. Time spent in the country’s special forces helped to shape Louis Tinsley and Anthony “Staz” Stazicker, both 40, the founders of the Poole-based high-performance clothing brand Thrudark (No 61). Emma Parkinson, 36, who set up the Sheffield steel stockholder International Energy Products (No 37) in 2017, worked in engineering recruitment and services before learning her trade and striking out on her own to make her fortune. “Being from quite a humble background, the biggest fear is you are always on the breadline,” she has said. “For somebody whose parents own their own home, for example, there is an element of financial security, whereas I have never had that. For me it has always been hand to mouth and I am craving that financial security. I never really felt that I had that in an employee role.”
• We nearly lost it all: the companies that survived Covid
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International Energy Products is one of 25 companies founded by women that feature this year, down slightly from the record 28 in 2023. Other female founders include Ama Amo-Agyei, 27, who set up the Reading-based hair and skincare brand Plantmade (No 29), Aneisha Soobroyen, 36, co-founder of the pet food brand Scrumbles (No 45), and Sonia Murton, 55, chief executive of the property maintenance group Westbury (No 90).
If there was ever any doubt, these entrepreneurs show that the path to success is rarely a smooth one. What may appear like alluring riches, achieved overnight, is the result of long hours and setbacks. Hyrum Cook, 31, the founder of the Manchester fashion brand Adanola (No 7), has described how 2018 to 2020 were bleak years. “We were getting nowhere. Our best monthly sales figure was £10,000. I was in debt — I couldn’t pay myself a salary,” he recalled in an interview with Vogue. He came close to shuttering the brand before Covid hit and he launched Adanola’s Ultimate Leggings: the product went viral as consumers became obsessed with at-home workouts by Joe Wicks and the like.
• Read more: the full list of companies on this year’s Sunday Times 100
The Sunday Times Hundred 2024: top 10
1. Allica Bank
▲ 536.98% Fintech
Britain’s fastest-growing business helps others to grow by lending money, and providing cards and accounts. Chief executive Richard Davies led it to sales of £191 million in 2023
2. Clive Henry Group
▲ 264.50% Healthcare recruitment and consultancy
This firm is the fourth ST 100 business founded by former South Bromsgrove High School students; Liam Molesworth and Sam Alsop-Hall saw sales hit £20 million last year [link to school feature]
3. Rheal
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▲ 243.02% Food supplement brand
Charlotte Ali, who has coeliac disease, and her husband, Sean, started making their natural “superfoods” in 2017. Sales reached £19.8 million in 2023
4. Trip
▲ 224.75% Drinks and supplements brand
The husband-and-wife team Olivia Ferdi and Daniel Khoury only created this cannabidiol-infused drinks brand in 2019 with sales passing £20 million in the year to February
5. Ancient + Brave
▲ 222.51% Health supplements brand
Kate Prince, a former media lawyer, founded the firm in 2018 after she started taking collagen and MCT oil to improve her own health. Sales were £10.2 million in 2023
6. Pentalec
▲ 218.73% Building services contractor
The electrification of Britain’s energy network has helped to spark this company into growth mode. John Hatt and Sam Stageman led it to sales of £9.3 million in the year to February
7. Adanola
▲ 201.52% Fashion brand
Its co-founder Hyrum Cook has seen this athleisure specialist reach sales of £57.4 million in the year to March; this month he handed over the chief executive role to Niran Chana
8. Heroes
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▲ 201.43% Baby and youth consumer products
Set up by three brothers in 2020 to acquire niche brands selling through Amazon Marketplace, this company has raised £200 million from investors and sales hit £82.2 million in 2023
9. Purdy & Figg
▲ 187.76% Consumer cleaning product
Counter Clean is one of this popular brand’s bestsellers. All products use natural ingredients and are made at its factory in Hertfordshire. Sales reached £18.3 million in the year to March
10. Liqueo
▲ 186.35% Management consultancy
The team built by founders Andrew Proud and Richard Over and CEO Stephan Williams advise asset and wealth managers on their operations. Sales hit £19 million last year
