The waffle specialist, which sells more than 50m a year in over 10,000 locations in the hospitality, contract catering, education, travel and healthcare sectors, was ranked 31st overall, but was the fastest growing consumer food brand.
Company founder Alexander Troullier said: “We’re beyond delighted to have been named 31st in The Sunday Times 100 fastest growing UK companies. The pace of growth required to secure a place on this prestigious league table has shot up this year, so we’re particularly proud to have achieved this. It is a real privilege to be amongst such great UK businesses who are working so hard and achieving so much success.”
And Rikos Leong-Son, Wafflemeister’s chief executive, added: “To be ranked as the UK’s fastest food consumer brand by The Sunday Times is breathtaking - it shows that our strategy, growth plans and business model are not only working, but among the best in the country. Our meister bakers are constantly driving innovation in a sector that has historically been massively underinvested in and the customers are reaping the benefits of this hard work.”
The company launched its own charitable foundation, the Wafflemeister Foundation, earlier this year and hosted its first fundraising event, a ‘Hospitality’s Got Talent’ competition that raised more than £30,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Burnt Chef Project.
To be considered for inclusion, companies needed to be independent, privately-owned and UK headquartered; have sales that exceed £5m in their latest year of trading, but not £250m. Annualised sales should exceed £250,000 in the base year, and not show a drop from the penultimate to the latest year, and companies should be in operating profit in their latest year.