BLACKBURN-BASED Euro Garages has been named the seventh largest private company in the north west.

It was also named in the top 75 of Britain’s biggest private companies.

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The group finished at 72nd in the 15th annual Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 100 league jumping 24 places from 96 on last year’s results.

The company, whose headquarters is on Beehive Trading Park, also achieved the biggest percentage rise in sales in the region, up 26 per cent to £816 million.

This shows a total profit of 52 per cent, dwarfing their previous 47 per cent rise in 2014, and is partly due to its acquisition last year of 172 sites from Exxon Mobil and Shell.

Euro Garages was founded in 2001 by brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, with the purchase of a single petrol filling station in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Since then it has established itself as one of the UK’s fastest growing forecourt operators and is known for holding high-profile partnerships with Subway, Starbucks, Greggs and Burger King.

Khalid Saifullah, managing director of Star Tissue and chairman of the Hive Network, said the company was helping to put the town on the map.

He said: “We can be proud that Euro Garages is doing extremely well, the they have changed the petrol station experience.

“They have grown at a such a rapid pace and they have been able to develop partnerships with other big companies from the UK and internationally.

“We are very pleased that they are doing incredibly well and it does inspire businesses in the area. More importantly it is going to be an inspiration for young people looking to start up a business.

“They can look at Euro Garages and say ‘these lads succeeded and are from Blackburn’.

“It goes to show that whether you’re living in Blackburn or London it makes no difference - anything’s possible.”

The league table is sponsored by HSBC and Linklaters, and is compiled by Fast Track, the Oxford-based research and networking events company.

It will be available as part of a six-page broadsheet supplement with the business section of The Sunday Times on July 10 and on: fasttrack.co.uk.

Dan Howlett, head of corporate banking in the UK at HSBC, said: “These businesses are ambitious, agile and passionate about what they do and will play an important part in helping to drive the British economy forward, domestically and internationally.”