The UK Fast Growth Awards, held at ICC Wales in Newport, recognised 350 of the UK's fastest-growing businesses from seven nations and regions, including 50 Welsh companies that increased their combined turnover from £324m to £756m.
The event, which took place earlier this month, celebrated firms that have continued to create employment, generate wealth and expand into new markets despite the Welsh economy facing low productivity, weak business investment and a longstanding prosperity gap with the rest of the UK.
Remarkable growth figures
According to this year's UK Fast Growth Index, the 350 companies increased their combined turnover from £4.3bn to £10.2bn between 2023 and 2025, generating an additional £5.9bn in annual sales in just two years, with an average growth rate of 138%.
This growth was achieved during a period of higher borrowing costs, rising employment costs, persistent inflation and considerable economic uncertainty. The 50 Welsh companies in the index grew their combined turnover from £324m to £756m over the same period, representing growth of more than 133%.
Diverse sectors represented
The index includes a company that helped clean the Mona Lisa, a confectioner whose Brazil nuts are coated in more than 2,000 layers of chocolate, and a games manufacturer whose products have been watched more than a billion times on TikTok. This diversity challenges the assumption that economic transformation must depend primarily on attracting large inward investors or supporting a narrow group of technology businesses.
High-growth entrepreneurship is not confined to particular industries, technologies or locations, with successful firms emerging from manufacturing, construction, food production, professional services, retail and numerous other sectors.
Lessons for economic policy
The additional £432m in annual turnover generated by the 50 Welsh businesses in this year's Fast Growth Index demonstrates what can be achieved by a relatively small number of ambitious companies. The experience of the Fast Growth Index companies suggests that one of the greatest opportunities to transform the Welsh economy may lie in identifying businesses with the potential to expand rapidly and addressing the barriers preventing them from doing so.
Access to appropriate finance remains important, but the experiences of successful growth businesses demonstrate that access to skilled employees, the quality of infrastructure, the speed of planning decisions, the effectiveness of innovation support and the ability to reach new customers can be equally important. This requires a more coordinated approach to economic development across the whole of government.
The most important change to economic policy in Wales would be to put the needs of Welsh businesses at the heart of every major economic decision the Welsh Government makes. Whether considering investment in education and skills, improving transport infrastructure, reforming planning procedures, developing procurement policies or supporting research and innovation, the fundamental question should be whether those decisions make it easier for Welsh businesses to invest, expand and compete.
Behind every Welsh company featured in this year's index are individuals who identified commercial opportunities, accepted considerable personal risks and demonstrated the determination required to build successful enterprises. Their achievements deserve recognition, but their greatest contribution may ultimately be in showing that the foundations of a stronger Welsh economy already exist.
