Awards honour retailers who are defying austerity on our high streets

CONSUMERS tightened their belts during the recession, but that hasn’t stopped Yorkshire’s retail businesses from thriving.

Next week, the rising stars of our region’s business community will be honoured at the Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards 2014.

Analysis of previous years, shows that retail companies make up a sizeable chunk of the region’s fast growing businesses. The Fastest 50, which is organised in association with Top 100 UK law firm Ward Hadaway, has been highlighting and celebrating the fastest growing companies across the region since 2011.

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Figures show that retail companies in a range of different sectors are making major contributions to the growth of the region’s economy. In the three years that the Fastest 50 has run, retailers have made a total of 14 appearances, which means that they have only been out-performed by manufacturing businesses.

The retail sector has certainly made its presence felt, accounting for a combined turnover of £953m across those three years.

One retailer – Poundworld – has been been in the Fastest 50 since 2011 and it has also made it into the final 50 for 2014.

Another discount retailer Pricecheck Toiletries made it into the Fastest 50 lists for 2011 and 2012.

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At the other end of the scale Harrogate-based luxury womenswear retailer Pure Collection, which specialises in cashmere clothes, stormed into the top five of the Yorkshire Fastest 50 last year with a 53 per cent rise in annualised turnover. It is back again in the 2014 rankings.

The winners of the 2014 Yorkshire Fastest 50 Awards will be revealed next week in a lunchtime event at Aspire in Leeds on March 14.

Awards will be handed out to the fastest growing small, medium and large businesses with one of those three winners then receiving the ultimate accolade of being crowned Yorkshire’s overall fastest growing business, 2014.

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