A group of seven Manchester companies have been named among the fastest-growing private businesses in Britain.
The city's success stories include Castore, a sports apparel business backed by tennis ace Andy Murray, as well as a homeware retailer and two fashion brands.
The businesses have been named in the latest Sunday Times 100 which found on average that the top 100 fastest-growing companies have increased their sales by 104% a year over the last three years to a combined £3.2bn.
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Other Manchester businesses featured on this year's list include a consumer rewards platform, a beauty devices retailer and a payments consultancy.
Castore, which is also backed by the billionaire owners of Asda, the Issa brothers, was named the second fastest-growing private company in Britain.
The business, which was founded by brothers Phil and Tom Beahon, had an annual sales growth of 285.80% over three years, according to the figures compiled by the Sunday Times.
The latest rankings also show the company achieved sales of £115m in the 12 months to the end of January 2023.
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Castore was second only to remote-working outsourced recruitment firm, Join Talent.
Bolton-based menswear brand Represent was the second highest Greater Manchester company featured on the list at number 37.
It was followed at number 47 by Stockport-based skin and hair care brand Grüum.
Homeware retailer Online Home Shop placed at 73, consumer rewards platform Airtime Rewards came in at number 75 while beauty devices retailer CurrentBody was at number 89.
Payments consultancy CMSPI was ranked at number 98 while fashion brand Manière De Voir rounded off the list at number 100.
The other companies based in the North West that made it onto the list were:
- 28: Craftd London - Cheshire
- 41: Fruugo - Cumbria
- 47: Grüum - Stockport
- 53: Applied Nutrition - Liverpool
- 56: Hispec Electrical - Lancashire
- 57: LCM Environmental Services - Lancashire
- 58: Pets Purest - Cheshire
- 71: Roberts Recycling - Liverpool
The research for the Sunday Times 100 was conducted in partnership with Beauhurst, a source of private company data.
On being included in the list, the managing director of Online Home Shop, Moshe Cohen, said: "For Online Home Shop to have been placed in The Sunday Times 100 for the second consecutive year is an outstanding achievement.
"This accomplishment not only demonstrates our continued efforts and resilience in a tougher market, but underpins the drive, talent and continued support of our people, which allows us to continue to grow year-on-year.
"We’re excited to see where the next few years will take us as a business, as we look to expand our position as a leading homeware provider in the e-commerce space, creating more jobs to help boost the local economy and provide opportunities for people to build their careers."
Andy Shaw, the co-founder of Grüum, added: "We’re thrilled to have been recognised by The Sunday Times 100 and to be amongst such esteemed company.
"We’re really proud of what we’ve achieved so far, and are lucky to have such a fabulous team who’ve helped us get here. We’ve got big plans for the business and while we’ll certainly be celebrating this weekend, it’s straight back to it next week.
"This year has already seen the Grüum portfolio expand as we add personalised supplement and vitamin provider Everly into our group.
"Wellness as an industry is only going to continue seeing growth and consumer interest, and sustainable and tailored services like Grüum and Everly are where the market is shifting to. We look forward to seeing the continued growth of the Grüum group, and continuing to be disruptive players in the health, wellness and personal care categories."
