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