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, with an awards event the following May, and alumni dinners during the year.
The closing date for nominations for the 2019 league table is 27 September, with publication on 1 December 2019.
Fast Track 100 entry criteria
The closing date for nominations for the 2019 league table is 27 September, with publication on 1 December.
- UK registered, unquoted, and not subsidiaries
- Sales of at least £250,000 in the base year (2015 or 2016)
- Sales of at least £5m in the latest year (2018 or 2019)
- Ten or more employees in the latest year (2018 or 2019)
- Operating profit of at least £500k in the latest year (2018 or 2019)
- Year-on-year sales growth in the latest year from 2017 to 2018, or 2018 to 2019, plus forecast (or actual) sales growth
- Trading weeks in the base and latest years have to exceed 25
- Recruitment firms, payroll services providers 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 our Ones to Watch programme, particularly if they forecast good sales growth
Exclusions
- Technology companies (which appear on Tech Track 100), LLPs, pure property and financial trading companies, and companies with sales of over £500m
- Companies that are equal joint ventures, or majority-owned by quoted or other companies
- We reserve the right to change the qualification criteria set out above and to make exceptions. This is not a competition; the compiler’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
Types of company
Total sales
£5m - £250mProfits
up to £10mAverage 3 year sales growth
45% - 200% paStaff
10 - 2,000Over the past 21 years our sponsorship has produced great results introducing Virgin to many inspiring entrepreneurs Sir Richard Branson, Virgin
Fast Track brought us to the attention of the market and since then we've gone from a private business to private equity-backed and on to a successful float Tom Joule, Joules
The 'lists' help companies know where they stand and the dinners are excellent Humphrey Cobbold, PureGym
The best of British business in one place - awesome! William Reeve, serial entrepreneur
Fast Track 100 is the Oscars of growing companies. It provides instant credibility and has been a badge of honour for Vardags Ayesha Vardag, Vardags
Fast Track celebrates the very best of Britain's entrepreneurial businesses and helps promote and propel them to new levels Matt Isaacs, Essence
Fast Track has been instrumental in developing brand kudos for our business Steven Ades, AerFin
Coming to a Fast Track event has opened new doors of opportunity Mo Iqbal, Tile Mountain
A unique way to reward and elevate your brand—it has been an inspiration to push on Richard Baker, Wattbike
Been an amazing badge of performance and fabulous marketing tool Helen Swaby, De Montfort Fine Art
I'm really proud to be a sponsor of Fast Track 100 and see companies that we back, and that we would like to back. The connections that you make are invaluable. Stephen Welton, CEO, Business Growth Fund
Fast Track is a fantastic organisation and a great champion of the entrepreneur James Footit, Higgidy
Alumni success stories
Featured in 1997 with sales of £17m; floated in 1998 and sold in 2016 to SoftBank for £24bn
First featured in 1997 with sales of £65m; agreed a £3.8bn merger with Dixons in 2014
First featured on Fast Track 100 in 2011 with sales of £6.7m; floated in 2014 and is now worth £4.1bn with £170m turnover in 2017.
