Go Ape! Listed in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100
The country’s leading outdoor adventure company, Go Ape High Wire Forest Adventure, has been announced as one of Britain’s fastest growing private companies for the second year running in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table, published this weekend, 6 December 2009. Despite the economical downturn, Go Ape has made an excellent contribution to the local economy in the last three years and is the only leisure company listed in the league table.
This comes as great news after its recent win of the much sought after ‘Santander Small to Medium Size Business of the Year’ accolade at the National Business Awards 2009 where it was identified that Go Ape has laid out a ‘careful and measured path to a diversified future and long term prosperity’.
One of only four companies in the East celebrated on the league table, Go Ape features at number 82 showing 60.19% annual sales growth over the last three years, from £2.1m in 2005 to £8.5m in 2008. These are exciting times for a company that has grown to become a national phenomenon since its conception seven years ago. With a mission statement that invites participants to ‘live life adventurously’, Go Ape employs over 350 staff and has 22 forest adventure courses across the UK. With almost two million visitors to date, next year’s plans include the creation of up to seven new Go Ape courses in the UK, 100 extra jobs and international expansion in both Australia and America.
Founded by husband and wife team Tristram and Rebecca Mayhew in 2002, the Go Ape concept was born in France where the couple discovered a tree top adventure course set deep in the Auvergne National Forest. The vision was to create a dream rural based lifestyle for them and for their future children. However, the couple have been taken by surprise as to how much fun it has been to grow a business from an idea to a nationally recognised adventure brand.
Tristram Mayhew explains: “Rebecca and I created Go Ape as a lifestyle adventure rather than as a business. We aspired to be on-tree-preneurs rather than entrepreneurs. But it was a total surprise to us how much of an adventure growing a business can be. We now have a family of over 350 amazing, talented and lovely people who have chosen to come along with us for the ride. We love what we do and would encourage anyone who has a yearning to step out on their own to just do it. Taking that first step is the hardest. Now is always the right time to start, and if you can secure backing and make a venture work in tough economic conditions, then it can only be easier when the economy improves. Don’t be one of those who looks back in years to come regretting that they never gave their dream a go.â€
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