The Growth 500 recognises the achievements of a business and team. It also bolsters a company’s credibility and raises awareness with potential customers.

There are many growth lists out there but we believe Business Leader’s is the largest and most comprehensive analysis of its kind in the UK. Others strip out certain sectors or larger companies, for instance. We also feel our three-year time period strikes the right balance between giving an up-to-date picture of which UK companies are growing most quickly while stripping out those that do well only briefly.

Well, this is the first time this analysis has been undertaken so it is a bit early to talk in terms of trends. Because we were looking at financial performance stretching back three years Covid definitely influenced our numbers. For example, the travel industry was grounded for long stretches during the pandemic. As a result many tour operators feature in the Growth 500 as they were starting from a lower base. High prices of gas and electricity have boosted the revenues of energy providers. There may be fewer utility firms in future years.

The list is incredibly diverse. Yes, there are fast-growing fintechs and FTSE companies, but you will also see soft-toy manufacturers, potato farmers and fashion designers.

There is a lot to learn from the list. For example, around a third of the Growth 500 didn’t turn a profit over the past year. Many ambitious founders grapple with that question - do I sacrifice profitability for growth? The geographical spread is interesting, too. More than half of the Growth 500 are headquartered in London and the South East. But there are also good showings for the East of England, the North West and the South West.

Business Leader’s analysis only looked at official accounts filed with Companies House. There are different ways to do this kind of work. For example, some lists accept submissions from companies that include data that is not in the public domain. We felt concentrating on published and audited accounts was the right approach for us.

There’s no doubt most of the Growth 500 are fresh faces. But it would be wrong to assume only start-ups can grow fast. Fifteen of our companies were founded more than a century ago. Three – the private bank C. Hoare and Co, the retail consultancy Herbert Group and the horse-racing group Weatherbys – have histories stretching back more than 250 years. Just because a business has been around a while doesn’t mean it can’t grow at speed.

So many! When this work began we had no idea whether you would need to increase sales by 50 per cent over three years to make it onto the Growth 500 or more. In fact almost all of these businesses increased their revenues by 100 per cent over the three years.