London & Boston, 29 September 2008: Cheapflights Ltd., a pioneer and international leader in independent flights price comparison is pleased to announce that it has been included in The 2008 Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 league table for a fifth consecutive year. The full findings were published in a special 8-page colour broadsheet supplement in the business section of The Sunday Times on 28 September and on www.fasttrack.co.uk. The 2008 Tech Track 100 ranked Britain's fastest-growing private technology companies based on sales growth over the latest three year period from 2004/5 to 2007/8.
Ranked in 38th place, up from 64th place last year, Cheapflights is the fastest growing in the table of only three companies in this year's 100 league table to have featured in it for the past five consecutive years. Cheapflights is also the fastest growing travel search company to be included in the table. While the award is based on revenue growth, Cheapflights has also consistently grown profits each year since its launch 12 years ago.
Commenting, Cheapflights' CEO Chris Cuddy said:
"We are thrilled to be recognized for an unsurpassed fifth straight year as one of the UK’s fastest growing private technology companies. This achievement is a testament to tens of millions of people in 2007 who found truly great deals on Cheapflights where we have assembled the single largest collection of flights advertisers available on the planet. Cheapflights international team of experts in the UK, US and Canada work tirelessly to make sure our users find great values, especially in these challenging economic times."
Contacts:
Cheapflights Ltd:
John Barrington-Carver; Corporate PR
Tel: +44 (0) 7831 655 630; e-mail: corporate-pr@cheapflights.com
Notes:
Cheapflights Ltd.:
www.cheapflights.co.uk was launched in 1996. It pioneered the concept of online flight price search and comparison and has been consistently profitable since launch. It was the first UK dotcom to introduce pay-per-click in 2000, which helped to transform online advertising. Cheapflights does not sell tickets but publishes flight deals from airlines, budget airlines, online travel agents and the long tail of other specialist flight deal providers. It launched its US site www.cheapflights.com in May 2003, which has rapidly grown and which now provides half of Cheapflights' millions of monthly visits by consumers. Its Canadian site www.cheapflights.ca which was "beta" launched in April 2007 is already enjoying traffic of over 200,000 monthly visits. Cheapflights UK and North American sites each provide consumers with rapid, easy to use comparisons of about 1 million flight deals daily from the broadest online selection of travel operators. The sites are valued by travel industry advertisers as a neutral, high-traffic source of quality high-conversion consumer leads. Cheapflights' status as an independent online travel price search and comparison and travel news site, together with its free opt-in subscriber newsletters makes it a natural starting point for finding travel deals and up-to-date travel industry information on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 2008: (Source: The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100)
The combined sales of the companies listed on The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 totalled £3.8bn. Together they employed 12,134 staff in 2007/8, and have on average increased their staff numbers by 67 each over their latest three year period from 2004/5 to 2007/8.
The 2008 league table features household names such as Lovefilm, Betfair, Cheapflights and King.com. The companies on the listing have developed a diverse range of products and services, including synthetic bone graft material (ApaTech) and building websites for companies such as Asda and Dixons (TheHut.com).
Most of this year’s Tech Track 100 companies are headquartered in London (45) and the South East of England (25), with the remaining breakdown as follows: North of England (16), the Midlands (7), Scotland (2), South West of England (2), Northern Ireland (2) and East of England (1).
Sales growth is measured by compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the latest three financial years between 2004 and 2007, or 2005 and 2008. A minimum of 25 weeks’ trading in the base and latest years was required. For financial years lasting less or more than 52 trading weeks, figures were annualised on a simple pro-rata basis.
Annualised sales had to exceed £250,000 in the base year (2004 or 2005) and £5m in the latest year (2007 or 2008). Companies had to also show an increase in sales in their latest year, plus forecast sales growth. They were not required to be in profit.
Companies had to be unquoted, independent and registered in Britain.
The research was carried out by Fast Track between May and August. All companies were interviewed by telephone and the majority (80) have also been visited by the Fast Track research team.
About the Fast Track & Sponsors
Microsoft
Microsoft provides organisations with the technology they need to excel in their markets, based on Microsoft server, client and developer technologies as well as the comprehensive business applications offered by Microsoft Business Solutions. www.microsoft.com/uk
About BDO Stoy Hayward
BDO Stoy Hayward, UK Member Firm of BDO International, is the world’s fifth largest accountancy network with more than 600 offices in 110 countries. www.bdo.co.uk
About Barclays Commercial
Barclays Commercial Technology and Telecoms team have more that 40 sector-focused specialists located across the UK. They are working with more than 35% of all businesses operating in the sector and most of the UK listed T+T companies. www.barclayscommercial.com
About Fast Track
Fast Track is an Oxford-based networking events and research company ranking Britain’s top-performing private companies, ranging from the fastest-growing to the biggest.
The company was founded and is run by Dr Hamish Stevenson, who has been an associate fellow at Oxford University for the past 12 years.
www.fasttrack.co.uk
For further information and photographs please contact:
Lindsay Uppadine, Fast Track, Tel: 01865 297 009 Email: lindsay.uppadine@fasttrack.co.uk
Or:
Naomi Colegate, Fast Track, Tel: 01865 297 023 Email: naomi.colegate@fasttrack.co.uk
