ACT makes it into Fast Track 100

ACT Training is flying the flag for Wales in a new league table of the UK’s fastest growing privately-owned firms.

Cardiff based ACT Training has made the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100.

The influential list ranks the 100 biggest private firms in the UK, based on sales growth over the last three years.

ACT Training, which is ranked 78th, is largest apprenticeship provider in Wales, delivering training for more than 1,000 employers, including British Gas and the BBC.

Founded in 1988 by Andrew Cooksley, it also supplies workforce training schemes.

Helped by new contracts with the Welsh Government, it grew sales by 50% a year to £29m last year, and has plans to expand into England next year.

ACT Training, which employs 305, achieved an annual sales growth of 50% of the three year period to the financial year end July, 2014, when it posted sales of £29m.

This year’s Fast Track 100 companies achieved, on average, sales growth of 65% a year over three years, from a total of £816m in 2011/12 to £3.7bn in 2014/15.

They more than tripled their combined workforce to 19,500 people over three years, having added 13,500 jobs over the period, some as a result of acquisitions.

The majority of companies are headquartered in London (39) and the southeast (18). Of the remainder, 11 are in the northeast and Yorkshire, eight in the northwest, seven in the Midlands, six in the southwest, five in Scotland, four in the East, and two in Wales.