The UK has long been a powerhouse destination for growing and ambitious businesses, and those credentials remain strong in 2025.
This is a part of the world, after all, that benefits from a strategically advantageous location between mainland Europe and the United States, as well as a business-friendly environment, a skilled and diverse workforce, and an all-round culture of innovation.
However, none of these factors should lead you to believe it is a quick and easy task to build up a British business success story, which is why a large helping of ambition will always be essential, too.
Here, then, are just three British brands of recent times have turned heads due to their sheer drive and determination to be the best – and that people should be keeping a close eye on throughout the rest of 2025 and beyond.
Gymshark
It is quite something to think that this now widely recognised brand – valued at more than £1 billion in 2020 – had been, as recently as eight years earlier, little more than a modest drop-shipping operation for bodybuilding supplements ordered through its website.
However, the fledgling project of school friends Ben Francis and Lewis Morgan had much further to go. Now a renowned multinational fitness and apparel brand, Gymshark’s staggering rise owes much to direct relationships cultivated with customers through social media and events, as well as what we now know as “influencer marketing”, before everyone was talking about it.
In more recent years, Gymshark has made a priority of ramping up its programme of live experiences and boosting the availability of its products on the high street. Its first physical store opened its doors on London’s iconic Regent Street in October 2022, followed in early 2025 by the launch of its first store outside the UK at Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates.
Ink Digital
Based in Brentwood, this increasingly prominent online marketing agency prides itself on serving SEO clients in Essex and across the UK through the delivery of results with a “permanence” akin to ink itself. Indeed, this was the thinking behind the company’s present name, to which it rebranded during 2023 after formerly being known as Mr SEO.
That previous identity referred to the agency’s previously slightly narrower focus – on search engine optimisation (SEO) – since its establishment as Michael Ryan SEO in 2019.
Over the years, the company has recorded stellar growth, founded on the tailored approach that it brings to clients in a variety of industries, as well as its adaptability to the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, and a commitment to bringing through new talent.
As of 2025, Ink Digital continues to perfect its workflow and refine its service offerings to reflect its holistic and results-oriented philosophy in relation to digital marketing.
Olio
There can be no more noble an ambition than helping to get on top of the climate crisis by eliminating waste. However, the food sharing and community platform already used by eight million people worldwide also has deep and meaningful day-to-day benefits for its users.
After all, most of us probably have certain items in our home – whether food or non-food – that might be useless to us but would be greatly beneficial to someone else… if only there was a way of them knowing about it. Olio is precisely that app for spreading the word around one’s community.
Furthermore, Olio is a great British success story, having been co-founded and launched by Tessa Clarke and Saasha Celestial-One in 2015, when it was initially active as a food-sharing app in just a few North London postcodes.
Over the ensuing years, the company and platform have attracted the attention and admiration of consumers, large corporations, and investors alike, on the way to gaining a presence across more than 60 countries around the world. The firm has set a bold goal of reaching a billion “Oliers” globally by the end of this decade – and we wouldn’t bet against them accomplishing it.
Why not sample one or several of these great British brands of 2025 for yourself today, to see and experience how they could benefit your personal and/or professional life?
