Travel Counsellors is celebrating after being named in the Hot 100 ranking of the UK's fastest-growing private companies announced this week by Real Business, in association with Investec.  The independent travel company, which has one of the highest scores in the world for customer loyalty*, has been ranked 39th in the list which highlights those organisations who have shown substantial compound growth over the past four years.

The company is recorded as having compound sales growth of 42% over the period with sales for the financial year end (31 October 2011) of £346m ($533,000,000 AUD).

Managing Director Steve Byrne comments; “We are thrilled to have been recognised in the list as it reflects the professionalism and commitment of all of the people in the business and the care they show for each other and their customers. They deserve the recognition and accolades for being exceptional at what they do.”

Real Business published the first Hot 100 list in 1997, showcasing the fastest-growing companies in Britain at the time. Fifteen years later, Real Business's Hot 100 listing is one of the most established pieces of research for Britain's Mittelstand. Unlike some of the other fast-growth rankings published every year, the Hot 100 looks at historic figures, revealing underlying trends over the last four years, as well as indicating future, more structural shifts in the country's economy. Research amongst 24 of the Hot 100 companies reveals that they are extremely positive about the future. 71% expect ‘significant’ improvement in their business prospects, and 75% anticipate a slight or significant improvement in their operating profits. In terms of what these successful companies see as the key to their success, the factors most frequently quoted are ‘delivering exceptional customer service’ and ‘innovation’.

Byrne agrees with these findings; “As a company you can never stand still. We are constantly looking at new and innovative ways to support our Travel Counsellors to enable us to build personal relationships with our customers and make Travel Counsellors a great place to work. This includes the development of our own in-house dynamic packaging system Phenix, which we have made even more efficient and content rich, incorporating direct feedback from our agents and enabling them to greatly increase their earning potential. Plus we are the first organisation to be recognised by the CAA as an accredited body for the new Flight-Plus scheme, which along with our Financial Trust means our agents don’t have the worry about financial protection.”

Travel Counsellors continued success has also recently been recognised when the company was listed in the 2011 Sunday Times International Fast Track for international growth and the Telegraph’s 1000 Britain’s Brightest Businesses.

A major contributor to the growth of the company’s increased sales figures is the continued success of it’s international operations, including Australia.  “For us to be named in the UK’s Hot 100 fastest growing companies is just fantastic, and proves to agents all over the world that we really are a leader in the growing phenomenon that is ‘home based’ travel agents.  We hope to emulate that success here in Australia, as we are in a similar position with the business as the UK was 13 years ago!” comments Australian General Manager, Deb Duncan.

The full report on the UK’s Investec Hot 100 featured in the Spring issue of Real Business, which was published on 5th April. It can also be viewed at www.realbusiness.co.uk.

* Travel Counsellors uses the Net Promoter® Score system to measure customer satisfaction. Two weeks after booking all customers are sent a simple question ‘How likely is it that you would recommend your Travel Counsellor to your friends and colleagues?’ Customers can give us a score ranging from 1 to 10. Since Travel Counsellors started measuring our customers’ responses in 2007 it has consistently achieved a world beating score of over 90%, far higher than that achieved by other travel companies and putting it among just a handful of companies worldwide that are rated so highly by their customers.