The Sunday Times Top Track 100 league table ranks Britain’s 100 private companies with the biggest sales. It is compiled by Fast Track and published in The Sunday Times each July, with a series of associated events in the autumn.
The 19th annual Top Track 100 supplement was published on 5 July as a special Covid-19 edition, sponsored by HSBC and Linklaters. It highlighted how the UK’s biggest private companies have supported the country during the crisis, how it has impacted their industries, and how they are adapting.
We hope this special edition recognises the impressive past performance of all these companies, their contribution to the economy and role in paying the taxes that help fund vital public services, such as the NHS, as well as their responses to the pandemic.
The closing date for nominations for the 20th anniversary league table is 28 May 2021, with publication in July 2021.
Top Track 100 entry criteria
The closing date for nominations for the 2021 league table is 28 May 2021, with publication in July 2021.
Sales £750m – £25bn
- UK registered, unquoted, and not subsidiaries
- Sales are taken as total turnover, net of VAT
- Companies are not required to be in profit
- Trading weeks in the latest year have to exceed 25
- Companies must have at least 100 staff (average full-time equivalents for the year)
- Bookmakers, betting and gaming companies should provide net revenue
- Companies may have their ultimate holding company offshore
- Sales are typically between £750m and £25bn
Exclusions
- Companies that are equal joint ventures, or majority-owned by quoted or other companies
- Pure trading companies and companies with fewer than 100 staff (average full-time equivalents for the year)
- Not-for-profit companies, including co-operative societies, mutual societies, provident associations, and member-owned buying groups
- 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
.@pastaevangelist, the pasta-kit subscription service, is being acquired by Italy’s @Barilla for about £40m. It featured on our #VirginAtlanticFastTrack100 10 Ones to Watch last month, is led by MD Alessandro Savelli, backed by @PrueLeith @gilescoren @WilliamSitwell @Pembroke_VCT
@Checkout has hit a $15bn valuation, making our #SageTechTrack100 alumnus Europe’s most valuable venture-backed company. Founder and CEO Guillaume Pousaz is speaking at our virtual founders & shareholders roundtable on 16 March, sponsored by @Barclays Private Bank.
Dr Martens announces plans for a £3bn float on the London Stock Exchange. An alumnus of our #BDOProfitTrack100, the iconic boot brand is led by CEO Kenny Wilson, who gave a compelling keynote at our Profit Track virtual awards event in October. @BDOaccountant @santanderuk @ubs
Our #VirginAtlanticFastTrack100 alumnus @moonpig reportedly targeting £1bn+ valuation in one of the first IPOs of the year. The online greeting cards firm made sales of £173m and ebitda of £44m last year. https://t.co/b3tgOYmoHr
Congrats to 16 entrepreneurs, directors + employees of our alumni companies recognised in the New Year’s honours. Irene Hays, chair of #PwCTopTrack250 alumnus @HaysTravel (pictured), and Jo da Silva, structural engineer at #TopTrack100 stalwart @ArupGroup, both become dames.
Tackling the challenges of COVID-19 head on: Luke Benton, Owner and MD of @mnbprecision, number 30 on this years' @ST_FastTrack, told us how they've had to react and diversify to maintain growth: https://t.co/P1OrQgXR0e #fasttrack100 https://t.co/SpqdX8rcCl
Also congrats to the 37 companies which ranked on our 10 Ones to Watch programmes and our 10 Green Tech to Watch
@GlencarTweets (pic) – #VirginAtlanticFastTrack100
@turnertownsend – #PwCTopTrack250
@RevolutApp – #SageTechTrack100
@INEOS – #HSBCTopTrack100
@Gymshark – #BDOProfitTrack
@ReedMackay - #HSBCInternationalTrack200
Congrats to the 820 top-performing private companies appearing on our six league tables published with @ST_Business this year. Details can be found on our website https://t.co/VidMurAbDV. The six outstanding companies ranked at No.1 on their respective league tables are: https://t.co/vZ7vyM4uqm
@HotelChocolat @Ambtheatre @ItsuOfficial @Pret @WeAreAMS @nanopore @Gymshark @TropicSkincare @BromptonBicycle @gethuel @thehutgroup @veezugroup Gtech @drmartens @wearetrouva @gohenry @CazooUK @Darktrace @NP_Partnership @VetPartnersLtd @cobrabeer @CBItweets @PureGym
Types of company
Total sales
£750m - £25bnProfits
up to £2.5bnStaff
100 - 20,000Top Track 100 is a real kitemark of business excellence. Being part of it makes us all proud Sir Michael Bibby, managing director, Bibby Line Group
A first class example of how to support vibrant, growing businesses Tim Stone CBE, non-executive director, Arup
Opportunity to meet the best private companies in the UK Stefano Pessina, executive chairman, Alliance Boots
We’re very proud of the fact that we’re number 1 Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder & chairman, INEOS
Excellent mix of very interesting people, motivating and inspiring every time Patrick Lewis, group finance director, John Lewis
Alumni success stories
First featured in 2002 with sales of £1.3bn, it was sold to Turkish biscuit maker Yildiz for £2bn in 2014
First featured with sales of £713m. Floated in 2014 at valuation of £3.4bn
First featured with sales of £3.1bn. Floated in October 2015 at valuation of £6.2bn & was sold to US rival Vantiv in 2017 in £9.3bn deal
Sponsors
