This year’s Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250 League Table features St Austell Brewery for the first time - coming in at number.175.
The Cornish independent family brewer and pub company's acquisition of Bath Ales last year helped sales grow to a record £153m, an increase of 14%.
James Staughton, St Austell Brewery CEO, (pictured) commented, “This is obviously hugely important to us, confirming as it does the success of our mid and long term business strategies for growth.
'Our acquisition and subsequent investment in Bath Ales has afforded us new scope for wider business development. This not only benefits us immediately in terms of revenue growth potential but is also great news for the wider local economy in terms of increased business and employment opportunities.
'Recognition of our efforts and those of other South West businesses included in this year’s national Top Track 250 is a great advertisement for the diversity and quality of innovation and entrepreneurialism across our entire region.”
Others listed included: restaurant chain, TGI Fridays, catering firm, CH&Co, catering equipment supplier, Nisbet, and dairy products producer, Yeo Valley. Go to Caterlyst's Industry News rollover for the full list of foodservice firms making the table.
The Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250, which is published 1 October, complements the Top Track 100, published in July, which features Britain’s biggest private companies. It ranks the next 250 largest companies by sales, provided they meet the growth and profitability criteria. The 250 companies grew combined sales by 16% to £62.4bn, operating profits by 34% to a record £5.4bn, and staff by 10% to 384,200.