74. POD

Founder: Tim Hall
Website: www.podfood.co.uk

Founded in 2005, healthy fast food company pod stays as ethical as possible by sourcing all its ingredients responsibly, using construction materials from sustainable resources, and installing a composter in every outlet. Tim says he's confident the company can outlast a recession. “If you're poorer, you don't think ‘I'll start eating high-fat, bad food'. If anything, people think ‘at least I can keep myself in shape'.”

He may be right: pod has achieved a high rate of growth in the last two months, and it looks as if this trend is set to continue throughout 2008.