LONDON, September 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hut Group (http://www.thehutgroup.com/) have ranked number 4 in the 'Sunday Times Tech Track 100 ( http://www.fasttrack.co.uk/fasttrack/main/home.htm) of the UK's fastest growing companies with growth of 162% from sales of GBP53.60m in 2009/10 versus GBP2.98m in 2006/07.

Topping the league table at number 1 last year, The Group (http://www.thehutgroup.com/) have appeared in the table every year in the past four years and have featured in the top ten in the past three, despite the Group being less than 6 years old.

Founded in 2004 and based in Northwich, Cheshire, The Hut Group (http://www.thehutgroup.com/) is an online retailing platform focused on fast moving consumer goods including Entertainment (Games, DVDs (http://www.thehut.com/home.dept), CDs, Books), Electricals, Gadgets (http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/), Health Beauty, Footwear, Gifts (http://www.gifted.com/home.dept), Accessories, Toys and Sports.

The Hut Group (http://www.thehutgroup.com/) retails online through its own sites including TheHut.com (http://www.thehutgroup.com/), Zavvi.com (http://www.thehutgroup.com/), Iwantoneofthose.com ( http://www.thehutgroup.com/), Gifted.com (http://www.gifted.com/home.dept), MyBag.co.uk (http://www.mybag.co.uk/home.dept) and Washbag.com (http://www.washbag.com/home.dept). In addition, it delivers online retail solutions for blue-chip retail partners such as ASDA, Woolworths, Argos, Tesco and WHSmith.

In April 2010, The Hut Group raised GBP14m from a consortium of investors, including: Balderton Capital, Artemis, William Currie Group and Angus Munro, the former chief executive of Matalan.

MA Director, Steve Whitehead said, The business remains focussed on delivering growth through a combination of organic new site launches such as myBag.co.uk and Washbag.com plus through selective acquisitions. This growth strategy is evidenced within Gifting, where the Hut is now the UK's largest operator across our existing site, Gifted.com and IWantOneofThose.com, which we acquired in August. The Hut Group now employs over 200 members of staff and recently announced an apprentice NVQ scheme, which will bring 100-150 talented youngsters from the local area into the business for the year long vocational courses in Buying, Marketing, Design, Finance and more with the aim of nurturing the best talent at grass roots level in the North West.

About The Hut Group

Founded in 2004 and based in Northwich Cheshire, The Hut Group is an online retailing platform focused on fast-moving consumer goods including Entertainment (Games, DVDs, CDs, Books), Electricals, Gadgets, Health Beauty, Footwear, Gifting, Accessories, Toys, Underwear Sports.

The Hut Group retails online through its own sites including TheHut.com, Zavvi.com, Iwantoneofthose.com, Gifted.com, MyBag.co.uk and Washbag.com. In addition it delivers online retail solutions for blue-chip retail partners such as ASDA, Woolworths, Argos, Tesco and WHSmith.

In 2009, The Hut Group was ranked no.1 in the 'Sunday Times Tech Track 100 of the UK's fastest growing companies' and ranked the 3rd fastest growing digital company in Europe at the 'GP Bullhound Media Momentum Awards' in May 2010.

For further information, please visit http://www.thehutgroup.com

Please find below a list of websites operated by The Hut Group's retailing platform. For more information please visit their websites.

GIFTED.COM http://www.gifted.com THE HUT http://www.thehut.com INTERSPORT http://www.intersport.co.uk IWOOT http://www.iwantoneofthose.com MYBAG http://www.mybag.co.uk WASHBAG.COM http://www.washbag.com ZAVVI.COM http://www.zavvi.com ARGOS http://www.argos.co.uk ASDA http://www.asda.co.uk CDISCOUNT http://www.cdiscount.com DEBENHAMS http://www.debenhams.com LOVEFILM http://www.lovefilm.com TESCO http://www.tesco.com WH SMITH http://www.whsmith.co.uk WOOLWORTHS http://www.woolworths.co.uk

About The Fast Track

This is the tenth anniversary year of The Sunday Times Tech Track 1 00 league table, which ranks Britain's one hundred fastest growing private technology, telecoms and digital media companies.

The Tech Track 100 has title sponsorship from Microsoft, and main sponsorship from Barclays Corporate and BDO. The annual league table ranks private technology companies (TMT) with the fastest growing sales over their latest three years of available accounts, i.e. between 2006 and 2009, or 2007 and 2010.

Over the past decade, the Tech Track 100 has featured many well known brands, innovative ideas and stock market stars of the future. Some sectors have featured strongly, for example, telecoms companies dominated in 2001 following industry deregulation in the nineties. Since then, the emergence of online gaming, price comparison websites and, this year, cloud computing and managed hosting firms, have all been reflected in the annual rankings.

This year's Tech Track 100 companies are creating greater wealth and more jobs in the knowledge economy than at almost any other time.

Reproduced by permission. Copyright The Sunday Times Tech Track 100

Further copies of the Tech Track 100 supplement can be purchased from The Sunday Times' back issue agency, Back Issue Newspapers, which charges GBP8.99 per full copy of The Sunday Times (http://www.backissuenewspapers.co.uk, tel: +44(0)844-669-6400.

SOURCE: The Hut Group

CONTACT: Contact: THEHUTGROUP@FRANKPR.IT +44(0)20-7963-6999