West Mids companies strike gold on Times Fast Track list
Seven private companies in the West Midlands have earned a spot on the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list. The league table, which features the country’s top 100 privately owned companies with the fastest-growing sales, includes Birmingham-based gold dealer Lois Jewellery. The chairman of the company told Insider that “a general cashflow shortage” had encouraged more customers to sell their gold.
The list tracked the companies' growth over the past three years.
The highest placing company from the region was Warwickshire-based online flooring retailer, UK Flooring Direct, which entered at number 24. Birmingham’s surgery group Alliance Surgical, electrical retailer The Box and Lois Jewellery entered the chart at numbers 36, 48 and 62 respectively.
Safety products manufacturer Sprue Aegis, based in Coventry, also gained a spot on The Times’ 14th Fast Track list, at number 68.
Branded toy maker Wow! Stuff, based in Wolverhampton, came in at number 74, and Staffordshire’s Catering Academy entered at number 76.
Nigel James Blackburn, chairman of Lois Jewellery, told Insider that the company had undergone “unprecedented growth” over the past year.
“We experienced our best month ever last October”, he said. “Gold shot to a price that no-one had seen before – we couldn’t buy enough of the stuff.”
Blackburn added that the company, which employs ten people, was “delighted” to have been placed on the list.
“To have been named on such a prestigious list can only bring positive things to the business,” he said.
Lois Jewellery experienced annual sales growth of more than 60 per cent over the last three years, and sales of £43.1m.
The company has received public recommendations from TV ‘money saving expert’ Martin Lewis, and appeared on BBC 1 show, Inside Out.
Blackburn said that the jewellery firm will soon branch out with a new division dedicated to valuing precious items and antiques.
“We will have our expert staff able to value coins, antiques and stamps – it will be a kind of Antiques Roadshow division to the business,” he said.
