The region’s pace-setting companies to be in the spotlight again

THE achievements of Yorkshire’s pace-setting companies will again take centre stage this spring with the return of the Yorkshire Fastest 50, the awards which champion the fastest growing companies in the region.

The Yorkshire Post has teamed up with top 100 UK law firm Ward Hadaway for the event, which identifies and highlights the Yorkshire companies who have done the most to grow their sales.

The Yorkshire Fastest 50 celebrates the region’s real success stories by recognising profitable private sector companies who have seen the biggest annual growth rate in their turnover.

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Martin Hulls, pictured above, senior partner at the Leeds office, said: “Yorkshire has so much going for it in terms of ambitious businesses striving for success, which is one of the many reasons why we came to the region four years ago.”

A list of the top 50 fastest growing businesses will be published in the Yorkshire Post next month. Awards will be presented to the fastest growing small, medium and large businesses at an awards ceremony in March with one of those three winners then receiving the ultimate accolade of being crowned Yorkshire’s overall fastest growing business.

This is the second year for the Yorkshire Fastest 50 following a successful inaugural awards in 2011.

Mr Hulls said: “The Yorkshire Fastest 50 enables us to highlight the fantastic work being done by companies right across the region and celebrate the progress which so many firms are making, even in a time of challenging economic circumstances, and we think this is the perfect way to do that.

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“We want the Yorkshire Fastest 50 to send out a clear message, not just to the region but to the country as a whole, that Yorkshire is a place where businesses can really thrive.

“Last year’s awards surpassed all our expectations and demonstrated exactly why Yorkshire is such a great place to do business and we hope that this year will help to further establish the Yorkshire Fastest 50 as a real fixture in the region’s business calendar and a recognisable source of pride for all the companies involved.”

The Yorkshire Fastest 50 2012 is being compiled by independent economic researchers at Bradford University School of Management using publicly available data from Companies House.

The data will then be verified before the definitive list is published in the Yorkshire Post next month.

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Peter Charlton, Editor of the Yorkshire Post, said: “The Yorkshire Fastest 50 is an excellent opportunity to put the region’s business growth on the map and to celebrate all that is best about Yorkshire’s companies.

“It is vital for the region’s supporters like the Yorkshire Post to trumpet Yorkshire’s successes to the wider world and spread the word about our resilience and capabilities.

“This is exactly what the 2011 Fastest 50 Awards achieved so we are delighted to be teaming up again with Ward Hadaway for the 2012 Awards. We look forward to the results with great anticipation.”

Ward Hadaway, which also has offices in Newcastle and Manchester, has been running a similar awards scheme for companies in the North East of England every year since 1998.

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Previous winners of these awards have included Dragons’ Den TV star Duncan Bannatyne’s leisure empire, Bannatyne Fitness, and one of the country’s leading environmental services companies Eaga.

Jamie Martin, managing partner at Ward Hadaway, said: “The North East Fastest 50 has become a fixture in the business calendar in that region and has highlighted a raft of real success stories.

“The inaugural Yorkshire Fastest 50 brought together a tremendously diverse range of high-performing businesses and was received with great warmth and enthusiasm by the business community in Yorkshire.

“We hope that the 2012 awards will build further on this solid foundation and help to champion the real movers and shakers in the Yorkshire business world and bring their achievements to a wider audience.

“It will also be fascinating to see which sectors and industries in the region are seeing the most growth as the awards provide something of a barometer for the state of Yorkshire business.”