{"id":25080,"date":"2026-06-08T08:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/goalhanger-tops-sunday-times-100-list-of-fast-growing-companies\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T08:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T08:53:07","slug":"goalhanger-tops-sunday-times-100-list-of-fast-growing-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/goalhanger-tops-sunday-times-100-list-of-fast-growing-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"Goalhanger tops Sunday Times 100 list of fast-growing companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Gary Lineker\u2019s move from television punditry into podcasting has helped turn Goalhanger into Britain\u2019s fastest-growing private company, according to the latest Sunday Times 100 ranking<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Research for the annual list shows the London-based production business posted sales of \u00a337.9 million in 2025, with average annual growth of roughly 321 per cent over the past three years. That was enough to put it top of the table ahead of a wide field of consumer and service businesses.<\/p>\n

Founded by Lineker with former television producers Tony Pastor and Jack Davenport, Goalhanger has built a sizeable audience around long-form sports, politics and history programming. Its best-known titles include The Rest Is History, The Rest Is Politics and The Rest Is Football, the last of which is presented by Lineker alongside Micah Richards and Alan Shearer.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s rise comes after Lineker stepped down as presenter of Match of the Day last year, ending a 26-year run at the BBC following controversy over his social media commentary. He has since said he is not competing with the corporation, arguing instead that his World Cup coverage will sit alongside the BBC\u2019s live broadcasts.<\/p>\n

Goalhanger\u2019s momentum has also attracted outside backing. In January, the business secured investment from The Chernin Group, the media company led by Peter Chernin, whose credits include films such as Planet of the Apes and The Greatest Showman.<\/p>\n

The Sunday Times list also underlined the strength of Britain\u2019s consumer-facing businesses. Health and wellbeing brands Ancient + Brave and Free Soul were both placed in the top 10, each posting average annual sales growth of more than 200 per cent, while other names in the ranking included medical cannabis clinic Mamedica, non-alcoholic drinks maker Mother Root and meal delivery service Simmer Eats.<\/p>\n

Second in the list was Lucky Egg, a London boardgame and party-game producer that recorded growth of almost 300 per cent. The ranking also showed a record proportion of companies with female founders, co-founders or chief executives.<\/p>\n

Jon Yeomans, business editor of The Sunday Times, said consumer brands had become the dominant theme of the list over the past five years, with food, drink, fashion and beauty companies accounting for nearly half of the entrants. He added that several firms which had appeared before, including Huel and Applied Nutrition, had gone on to expand further through stock market listings or acquisitions by larger international groups.<\/p>\n

Source: Noah Wire Services<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Noah Fact Check Pro<\/h3>\n

The draft above was created using the information available at the time the story first
\n emerged. We\u2019ve since applied our fact-checking process to the final narrative, based on the criteria listed
\n below. The results are intended to help you assess the credibility of the piece and highlight any areas that may
\n warrant further investigation.<\/p>\n

Freshness check<\/h3>\n

Score:
\n <\/span>10<\/p>\n

Notes:
\n <\/span>The article was published on June 5, 2026, and reports on the Sunday Times 100 ranking, which was also released on June 5, 2026. No earlier publications of this specific information were found, indicating high freshness. No recycled content or discrepancies were identified.<\/p>\n

Quotes check<\/h3>\n

Score:
\n <\/span>10<\/p>\n

Notes:
\n <\/span>The article does not contain any direct quotes. All information is paraphrased from the Sunday Times 100 ranking and other reputable sources. No unverifiable quotes were found.<\/p>\n

Source reliability<\/h3>\n

Score:
\n <\/span>10<\/p>\n

Notes:
\n <\/span>The article is published by The Independent, a major UK news organisation known for its journalistic standards. The information aligns with data from the Sunday Times 100 ranking, a reputable source. No concerns about source reliability were identified.<\/p>\n

Plausibility check<\/h3>\n

Score:
\n <\/span>10<\/p>\n

Notes:
\n <\/span>The claims about Goalhanger’s sales and growth are consistent with other reputable sources, such as the Anatolia Pulse and PodcastingToday articles. The information is plausible and corroborated by multiple independent sources.<\/p>\n

Overall assessment<\/h3>\n

Verdict<\/span> (FAIL, OPEN, PASS): PASS<\/span><\/p>\n

Confidence<\/span> (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH): HIGH<\/span><\/p>\n

Summary:
\n <\/span>The article is a timely and accurate report on Goalhanger’s ranking in the Sunday Times 100, supported by multiple reputable sources. No significant concerns were identified in the fact-checking process.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Lineker\u2019s move from television punditry into podcasting has helped turn Goalhanger into Britain\u2019s fastest-growing private company, according to the latest Sunday Times 100 ranking. Research for the annual list shows the London-based production business posted sales of \u00a337.9 million in 2025, with average annual growth of roughly 321 per cent over the past three<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-publishing-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25080"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25082,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25080\/revisions\/25082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/lap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}