The fastest growing companies in Australia in 2022 have been identified by The Australian Financial Review’s Fast 100 andThe top rank in the Fast 100 has been taken out by Naked Life Non-Alcoholic Spirits, and the fastest of the Fast Starters is Fellr, which produces hard seltzer – carbonated water mixed with an alcohol base and fruit flavourings – launched amid the first lockdown.
The Fast 100 list recognises the growth of Australian standalone companies which started trading before July 1, 2017, and recorded at least $5 million of revenue in 2021-22. And the value of the booze-free market, already $152 million a year in Australia, is forecast by IWSR to rise at a rate of 31 per cent a year, until at least 2024.
With just five SKUs a year ago, Naked Life “hired far more product developers than a team of our size usually has” and now offers 15, from sake to sangria and even a sin-free Scottish malt “whisky”. It’s a breadth of choice to which Andrew partially credits Naked Life’s outsized growth. The gym franchise was founded in 2013 by motocross rider-turned personal trainer Peter Hull and his then-partner, now-wife Bec, who bankrolled their first “tin shed” gym in Brisbane by selling her Toyota Corolla for $18,000.