Four Gloucestershire firms have been listed in a league table ranking British firms in order of fastest-growing international sales.

The four - across a variety of sectors - have all experienced export sales growth of near 50 per cent or above.

The Sunday Times International Track 200 ranks Britain's mid-market private companies with the fastest growing international sales.

One of those firms is Cheltenham-headquartered Adey, which manufactures and installs the Adey Magnaclean heating filter system.

"We're delighted to be included in the league table for the first time alongside what are some very well-known and well-established international businesses," said John Vaughan, ADEY's chief executive officer.

According to the Sunday Times listing ADEY (number 111) has seen annual international sales growth on 55.44 per cent, its latest international sales top £4,098,000 and total sales £40,948,000. It has 98 staff.

Other firms included are Cirencester-based Corin Orthopaedics (number 118), which has seen sales rise 53.89 per cent. Its total international sales have reached £97,883,000 (the highest of all the four county firms) and total sales topped £105,729,000. It has 474 staff worldwide.

"We are very proud to be placed in The Sunday Times International Track 200, it is brilliant to be recognised for the hard work carried out by our whole team worldwide.

"Over the last four years we have made two overseas acquisitions that have accelerated our growth and have helped our overseas sales hit £97.9m in 2017," said a spokesperson for the company.

Cheesemaker Dairy Partners (number 134), of Stonehouse, saw sales rise 48.26 per cent to £23,629,000 and total sales reach £76,289,000. It employs 147 staff.

Robert Peel, a director at Dairy Partners, said: "We are proud to be flying the flag for UK export and playing a part in making the UK well known for quality food produce.

"We've been supplying our mozzarella product to international markets for three years now and have built strong relationships with direct customers as well as being known at key trade shows.

"Our business is built strongly on provenance and traceability in the UK. Our milk is from herds farmed in Wales and doesn't travel further than 50 miles before it reaches our factory.

"These values are shared by our international partners; we recently hosted a customer from Hong Kong and were able to demonstrate the measures we take to support local farming and share our passion for this first hand.

"Export is an important growth area for us with growth of over 40 percent each year since 2015.

"We currently export to 26 countries in North Africa, Middle East, Asia and EU and we are continuing to increase brand awareness with potential customers."

But beating all of the above in terms of percentage growth, giving it good reason to uncork one of its excellent bottles in celebration, is Off-Piste Wines (number 94).

The firm Cheltenham wine distributor saw international sales increase 59.8 per cent, international sales reach £1,887,000, and total sales hit £34,812,000. It employs 21 staff.

"Our growth in export has been fuelled by the global success of our Most Wanted Wines brand. We launched this in 2015 and it is now available across the multiples as well as the convenience and wholesale channels in the UK and a number of export markets, with more due to come on stream throughout 2019," said a spokesman for Off-Piste Wines.

"The consumer-focused approach of Most Wanted has resonated with wine-drinkers globally, resulting in the doubling of total sales volume in 2018 across the UK off-trade and export markets."

Mr Vaughan added: "It's testament to the hard work that has gone in to establishing ADEY as a market leader here in the UK that we've been able to take this success and replicate it in other countries.

"Our exports started with Europe where we now have an extremely strong presence and this was followed by the USA.

"More recently we've looked to support our export growth even further with moves into China and Australasia where we think there is real opportunity."

According to the Sunday Times the sales growth was measured using each companies' latest two years of accounts, with publicly available or obtained through the business itself.

Overseas sales in the latest year had to exceed £1million and be at least five per cent of total sales and show a rise on the previous year.

The league table is sponsored by HSBC, DHL Express and Oracle NetSuite and compiled by Oxford-based research and networking events firm Fast Track.

Read more: New jobs if firm can double Gloucestershire cheese production