Research and publishing company Fast Track has moved into new city offices at Angel Court, St Clements.

Tycoon Richard Branson was on hand to cut the tape with a pair of shears.

Virgin Atlantic, 51 per cent owned by Mr Branson, sponsors the company to track the progress of Britain's fastest-growing unquoted companies and to publish an annual league table.

Fast Track was founded in 1997 by Dr Hamish Stevenson, formerly the Virgin Atlantic-sponsored senior research fellow in entrepreneurship at Templeton College, where he is still an associate fellow.

Its team of graduate researchers, including four MBA students from Oxford's Said Business School, brings sponsors and venture capitalists together with entrepreneurial stars at events ranging from golf and racing car driving days to seminars and dinners.

Each year Fast Track holds a reception in the grounds of Mr Branson's Kidlington home for the bosses of the UK's fastest-growing companies. This year's event, in May, included a talk by Stelios Haji-Ioannou, chairman of easyJet.