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Times
27-06-2025
- Business
- Times
Meet the UK's fastest-growing companies in 2025
As hiring at large companies falters, Britain's fastest-growing private companies are picking up the baton. The 100 small firms that feature on this year's Sunday Times 100 ranking have created 10,500 new jobs in the past three years and are planning 5,300 more over the next 12 months. Our annual spotlight on the entrepreneurs selling must-have goods and services, and driving economic growth, shows that despite headwinds of higher business taxes and fragile consumer confidence, good ideas, endeavour, resilience and a large dose of luck remain a reliable formula for success. On our ranking you'll discover companies designing shoes worn by the Queen (Sole Bliss), food eaten by Stormzy (Wingstop UK) and beer drunk by Jeremy Clarkson (Hawkstone). • Explore the Sunday Times 100 — interviews, company profiles and more The supermodel Kendall Jenner is a fan of the activewear produced by Manchester's Adanola, while the former special forces marine Anthony 'Staz' Stazicker completed a record seven-day climb of Mount Everest in May wearing kit made by ThruDark, the outdoor clothing brand he co-founded. We also have inventors such as Laura Waters and Kelli Aspland, the Welsh pair behind Solar Buddies, whose patented child-friendly sunscreen devices will be seen on beaches this summer. Professor Neil Barron created a material called Barronium, a patented, fused composite armour, which his company Litelok, based in Swansea, is now selling in locks to protect high-value bikes and motorcycles from Britain's prolific thieves. On average the companies grew their revenues by 111 per cent a year for the past three years to a combined £3.4 billion, an increase of £2.8 billion. They all say they make a profit, one of our criteria to qualify. Another is that they can't have more than £250 million in annual sales. This year we have also separated fast-growth technology companies into a sister ranking, the Sunday Times 100 Tech, which is now published each January. The companies are based all over the UK. Notably, ten are in Scotland and Wales, whereas none were located there last year. London has slipped, down from 43 to 36 companies, while the northwest of England has 18, up from just 10 last year. Some 28 businesses are led by female founders or co-founders, such as Aimee Smale of the fashion brand Odd Muse, Pip Durell of the on-trend shirtmaker With Nothing Underneath and Lottie Whyte, the co-founder of the exercise recovery equipment maker MyoMaster, who slayed Steven Bartlett on Dragons' Den when she and her husband, Joe Gray, successfully pitched for investment on the TV show last year. The recognition of our ranking matters, perhaps as much as the TV show. 'I should play it cool, but I've been studying this ranking way before I started this company. It's been on my vision board for a long time. I'm just really excited to be included,' Whyte, 36, says. Many of our entrepreneurs are still only 30 and under, such as Simmy and Jhai Dhillon, the brothers who co-founded the meal subscription service Simmer Eats, and the school friends Daniel Yuen and Kieran Riddell-Austin, whose Liverpool-based clothing brand Montirex made bumper profits on their revenues of £76.7 million last year. Taking the top spot for the first time is Oscar Ryndziewicz, the founder and chief executive of Glasgow-based Dfyne, an activewear brand. His parents came to Britain from Poland: his father first, saving up cash from jobs such as making sandwiches at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival so he could afford to bring over his wife. Oscar was born a few years later and, after a few false starts, the 35 year-old now leads a highly profitable business that employs 120 people and hit revenues of £66.8 million this year. It grew its revenues by a phenomenal 517 per cent a year to this May, and will leap forward further in the next 12 months. What has helped them all succeed? Trying things appears to be a common characteristic. 'If you don't try, you are never going to get lucky,' says Ryndziewicz of Dfyne, who admits to his fair share of luck. To start with, his girlfriend Eilidh, an NHS orthoptist, maxed out her credit card to help him get Dfyne off the ground. The pair married this month, so it seems taking risks has its rewards. ▲ 517.32% Activewear brandOscar Ryndziewicz started Dyfne after his girlfriend, Eilidh, let him max out her credit card. The company hit sales of £66.8 million this year and the couple married on June 7. ▲ 434.11% Health products retailerThe brothers Lestat McCree and Max Clarke created Healf in 2020 to help consumers navigate the explosion of wellness products. They made sales of £40 million this year. ▲ 325.14% Consumer cleaning productsFed up with toxic cleaning products in plastic packaging, best friends Purdy Rubin, an NHS nurse, and Charlotte Figg, a horticulturist, decided to do something about it. ▲ 268.40% Fashion brandAimee Smale began Odd Muse as a lockdown hobby while a fashion student in 2020 and just four years later had racked up annual sales of £25 million. ▲ 205.46% Meal delivery serviceSet up by Simmy Dhillon (soon to be joined by his brother, Jhai) with just £10 of ingredients, Simmer Eats began in a university kitchen in 2017 and has grown to revenues of £36.1 million. ▲ 197.72% Management consultancyTim Bretman, an ex-Royal Marine, founded this consultancy in 2020, helping government departments and big companies innovate and upgrade their IT. ▲ 192.00% Fashion brandThe former Ashton United football players Dan Wilkins and Adam Morning launched this firm in Accrington in 2017, initially selling hats. Its clothing now brings in sales of £12.5 million. ▲ 186.80% Technology consultancyBased in Langstone, Newport, this company was started in 2020 by the serial entrepreneurs Mark Sweeny and Tim Warner — both of whom proudly support the Welsh tech scene. ▲183.54% Jewellery brandFounded in 2021 by Olivia Jenkins, Jack Zambakides and Oliver Smithson, this brand was created in memory of Olivia's late mother, Deborah Louise. Sales hit £6.6 million last year. ▲174.66% Children's toiletries brandCasyo 'Krept' Johnson — one half of the hip-hop duo Krept & Konan — leads this natural baby-care label. It was inspired by his daughter, Nala, and hit sales of £5.5 million this year.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Race from sea level: British Xenon gas climbers summit Everest in just five days, but now US national claims to have done it in less than four
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The race is on to see who can get from sea level to Everest's summit in the quickest time possible. Earlier today (May 21), news broke that four former British special forces soldiers became the first climbers to scale Mount Everest using Xenon gas, which helped them go from sea level summit in an extraordinary five days. It took the four veterans, in their forties and fifties, just five days from leaving London to reach the top of the 29,032ft (8,848m) peak, leaving them two days to get back to base camp to make their seven-day goal for the entire expedition. Usually it takes mountaineers several weeks to acclimatize to the high altitudes. The previous record was 21 days, and most expeditions take 70 days to let climbers get used to the thin atmosphere. But now, Nimral Purja is claiming that a client of his expedition company, Elite Exped, has gone from New York to Everest summit in just 3 days, 23 hours and 27 minutes. What's more, he's claiming that he did it only using supplementary oxygen. According to Purja, on May 15, Andrew Ushakov, left New York at 10.15am to travel to Everest base camp. On May 16, he and a team of five sherpa guides started the climb and reached Camp 3 on May 17. On May 18 they departed Camp 4 and after 22 hours reached the summit on May 19 at 9.22am. Purja said in an Instagram post: "Andrew only started climbing in 2020, he is not a full-time athlete, which makes this feat even more impressive." A full-time engineer and a dad, Ushakov reportedly managed the feat with "dedication, training and lots of preparation and hypoxic training for acclimatisation (*including 400+ hours in a hypoxic tent)". British veterans Alistair Carns, 45, Kevin Godlington, 49, Anthony Stazicker, 41, Garth Miller, 51, inhaled Xenon gas in Germany before their expedition. The gas is said to help accelerate the acclimatization process by increasing your body's erythropoietin production and boost red blood cell count. They also slept in specially adapted hypoxic tents to simulate the rarified air found on Mount Everest in the run-up to the trip. On the mountain they used supplemental oxygen. Anthony Stazicker is the founder of ThruDark a brand that creates high-performance outwear for harsh outdoor conditions. The group's progress was communicated on its Instagram account: "First day (May 17) was 12 hours long yomp. Pretty punishing 6 hours from getting off the plane. Today (May 18) was 5hrs but another 1km in height gained. "The Mission: Everest team is currently at Camp 3 and preparing to move to Camp 4 tomorrow (May 20). They're making great time and morale is high, even dodging an avalanche as they moved through the Khumbu Icefall." The team summited on May 21 at 7.10am in 35mph winds. They were with a team of fiver sherpa and one photographer. Xenon gas has been used by guides before but this is the first time it has been used by regular climbers. Lukas Furtenbach of Austria-based Furtenbach Adventures, which organized the expedition told Reuters: "'Xenon improves the acclimatization and protects the body from altitude sickness and the effects from the hypoxic environment. "Xenon made the climb safer and shorter as it kept the climbers properly acclimatized," he said. 'Shorter expedition also means less garbage, less resources, less human waste in this sensitive environment." Xenon is a gas mainly used in manufacturing of lights, but also as a surgical anesthetic. It is recognized as a doping agent in competitive sport by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and in May 2014 was added to the Prohibited List of substances. Adrian Ballinger, American climber and guide from Alpenglow Expeditions company, told Reuters that the use of Xenon was a 'stunt ... it's never seemed like the type of experience we want to provide.' However, he admitted that 'everyone should climb the mountain in a form they are proud of. If these climbers are proud of this style, then that's their choice'. The British group are hoping to raise over £1 million ($1,341,000) for veterans charities. Social media comments on the Elite Exped's posts were not so congratulatory, however: Matteusstarling commented: "Speed means nothing, that's just EGO. No respect for setting a dangerous example for climbers. There is a method to keep people alive and healthy and that's just cutting corners to make headlines. Internet and social media help bring these kind of sadly bad examples to life. But in the mountains, life will be always priority. Congratulations to the courageous climb, but it's not an example, it's merely a exemption of someone risking it's [sic] life and fellow sherpas." Hornsby_type_r replied: "These 'records' are mostly a product of artificially cutting corners most others don't when climbing mountains. Hypoxic tent before, ~5 Sherpas supporting you and probably a very high oxygen flow rate making the actual altitude relatively irrelevant. Still very hard, but with a lot more aid than most people get when climbing the mountain." Lanzetta posted: "Well if we're talking about Sea to Summit I'd say Tim Macartney Snape did it correctly. Walked from the beach to the summit of Everest. If you go by plane it's not sea to summit, it's just a quick ascent of Everest." British MP Alistair Carns told The Sun the xenon team were treating the climb like a Special Ops mission – using every advantage they could get. He said: 'This is like a Special Forces mission. We have the best people, the best training, the best kit and we are at the very cutting edge of science. We'll go in, hit the objective and leave no trace, no waste.' Elsewhere at Everest base camp, a UK nurse, fresh from her summit, has revealed how it was her nursing profession that gave her the skills she needed to reach the world's highest peak. Rowena Rowberry, 34, who is a nurse and lecturer in nursing at the University of Derby, is mid-way through her challenge of scaling each of the seven highest summits in the seven continents. Mount Everest was her fourth summit. She's taking on the challenge to raise money for the Royal College of Nursing Foundation and to shine a light on the hardships of nursing. Rowberry told the BBC: "I feel battered and bruised, mentally and physically exhausted. I really did struggle on the way down and if it wasn't for my amazing sherpas who kept encouraging me... they were the real machine into making this happen. "There's so much I've been through and I don't think I would have been able to do this if I hadn't had some of the qualities nursing has given me. "I wanted to shine a light on the profession and show what we can do." The best winter hiking boots: for unbeatable performance in the cold The best ice axes: for tackling frozen terrain
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Selly Oak action man MP waves Birmingham flag on top of Everest in record breaking feat
Selly Oak's action man MP Al Carns has successfully completed his record breaking mission to get up and down Everest inside a week - and proudly waved a Birmingham flag on the summit. Carns, speaking from Kathmandu Airport this morning, Thursday, May 22, waiting for the flight home that will take him into the record books, said he was 'incredibly proud' and 'feeling amazing' after the epic adventure. "It was really tough - we walked pretty much non-stop for 55 hours, all uphill, to get to the top, but we did it." READ MORE: Selly Oak's action man MP in record breaking bid to climb Everest in seven days Carns said the eerie 'moonscape' that unfolded as the team neared the top of the peak was tragically 'littered' with the bodies of those who had tried but failed to reach the top or collapsed on the descent. "It really brought it home, this was the death zone, where there is no room for error or accident," he said. At one point there was talk from their Sherpas of possible retreat because of the intense 70mph winds lashing them above Camp 4, at temperatures of -35 to -40, during their summit bid. "We said 'no way', and they agreed to continue for an hour - the clouds then parted and the winds subsided and we were able to make it to the top," he said. The veterans minister, elected as Selly Oak's Labour MP in 2024 after being 'parachuted in' to the seat following the retirement of Steve McCabe, said he had proudly waved the Birmingham flag from the summit. Carns was joined on the mission by former forces comrades Kevin Godlington, 49, Garth Miller, 51, and ThruDark clothing founder Anthony Stazicker, 41, wth their efforts sponsored by the clothing firm and other supporters. Between them, the team have served in every major conflict since 1992 and earned every military gallantry medal except the Victoria Cross, but all of the citations are secret. The team had inhaled xenon gas ahead of their record bid and slept in hypoxic tents at home for weeks so they could pre-acclimatise. The revolutionary tactic worked like a dream, said Carns. "We had no headaches, no altitude sickness, it was incredible. The evidence shows this appears to work." READ MORE: Selly Oak's action man MP in record breaking bid to climb Everest in seven days It normally takes mountaineers up to ten weeks to scale the peak, the world's highest, by walking in to Base Camp and then awaiting a rare weather window to climb the route in stages, so the body can acclimatise to the deadly thin air. But Carns and the team were up and down in three days. The evidence collected on their trip will be used to assess whether xenon gas can help Nepali and other high-altitude communities, and assist on other missions and expeditions in future. Carns also hopes to help raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for veterans' charities and to also highlight the valour and experiences of ex-forces people. You can donate to the appeal here. The team were waiting on a flight from Kathmandu airport to London, and expected to achieve their goal of getting from London to Everest and back inside seven days - an incredible feat. Enjoying a restorative pizza and beer, the jubilant team said they were thrilled to have executed their mission in style.
