Fast Track success for region’s companies

Published by

Nicky Godding

10 companies from across the region have been named in the latest Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100.

The Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s 100 private companies with the fastest-growing sales over their latest three years. It is compiled by Fast Track and published in The Sunday Times each December.

The highest regional company in the league table is Bracknell-based workplace design and construction company Curve. At No 3, it currently has live projects across the region including in Basingstoke, Woking, Reading, Bracknell and Oxford.

The company has reported a rise in sales over three years of 186.16 per cent and latest sales of more than £9 million.

Also featuring in the league (at no 5) are Xpress Centres, the Banbury-based car repair services company, which carries out 15,000 bodywork repairs per year in supermarket car parks. It has a turnover of nearly £12 million.

Maidenhead-based Evergen Group, which installs solar panels, sits at No 8, with a turnover of nearly £13 million with Gymshark, the phenomenally-successful fitness clothing retailer based in Solihull at No 10. Gymshark has a turnover of more than £179 million.

Kingswinford-based Stilz Lifts comes in at No 32 in the League Table with a turnover of more than £16.5 million with HalalBooking, a specialist online travel agency based in Reading coming in at No 33. HalalBooking, which has a turnover of more than £17,5 million, provided 100,000 holidaymakers with accommodation through its website this year.

Grenade, a sports nutrition brand, is at No 39. Based in Solihull the company turns over more than £44 million.

Oxford Summer Courses, which provides education for students from more than 112 countries, comes in at No 50 with a turnover of more than £9 million.

Launched in 2010 by two school friends and Oxford graduates, Harry Hortyn and Robert Phipps, the business delivers courses designed to give pupils aged 9 to 24 an authentic educational experience steeped in the unique teaching traditions of Oxford University. Welcoming students from 112 countries, Oxford Summer Courses generates an £9.2m turnover. Its courses take place during the summer months in Oxford, Cambridge and London, as well as, Mumbai, Singapore and Stanford in the USA.

Robert Phipps, co-founder and CEO at Oxford Summer Courses said: “We’re so pleased to have been recognised as one of the UK’s fastest growing businesses, for the second time. It underlines the importance of the UK’s educational heritage on the global stage and the growing attraction it continues to hold for students of all ages.”

As well as the Sunday Times Virgin Atlantic Fast Track 100 listing, Oxford Summer Courses was also ranked among the fastest growing companies in the UK in the most recent FT1000 index.

Harry Hortyn, co-founder and CEO of Oxford Summer Courses said: “We regard this ranking as recognition of our dedicated and exceptional team of tutors, who truly inspire their students’ love of learning. We’re really excited about the new experiences we will be offering in 2020 and beyond to give students from across the world an authentic taste of the history and traditions of the UK’s most historic education institutions.”

Envisage Dental, based in Basingstoke, is at No 51. The company turns over more than £6 million having only been established by a husband-and-wife team in 2014.

Life insurance broker, Reassured, based in Basingstoke, is at No 59, with a turnover of nearly £38 million.

The final company in the list is Hindlip, Worcestershire-based Aspen Services, which specialises in providing catering services to schools and colleges across the UK and has a turnover of more than £49 million, is at No 88.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.