The cosmetics brand Rituals created 1,097 new jobs in the period 2012-2016 and tops a new list of the fastest growing Dutch firms compiled by researchers at the Rotterdam School of Management.

Rituals, founded in 2000, heads the list of the 250 fastest-growing companies which together created over 10,000 jobs in the three-year period.

‘The ScaleUp Dashboard is the first list that truly takes into account and measures all companies in the Netherlands with more than 10 full time employees,’ says the programme’s director Justin Jansen. The survey covers companies in existence in 2012 which grew by a minimum of 20% in revenue and/or jobs,’ he explained.

Rituals now operates more than 500 outlets worldwide. Its founder Raymond Cloosterman, an alumnus of Erasmus, said: ‘We are opening two to three stores a week and hired and trained 2,400 new employees last year.’

Reesink, the agricultural equipment wholesaler, came in second, creating 906 jobs in 2012-2016. Third on the list is Coolblue, which was started as an electronics webshop in 1999 and has grown to over 323 online shops  and eight physical stores, creating 456 new jobs.