List of largest private companies in the United Kingdom
This is a list of largest private companies in the United Kingdom according to sales. Under UK company law, a private company (with the suffix "Ltd" usually) may not offer its shares for sale to the public (as can a "plc"). While lists of public companies usually rank businesses according to their market capitalisation (the traded share price multiplied by the number of shares), lists of private companies must use another measure, such as the value and volume of sales during a year.
This is a list of private companies in the United Kingdom, some of which based on the Sunday Times "Top Track".[1]
Company | Sector | Sales (£m) | Employees | Main shareholders |
---|---|---|---|---|
Greenergy | Fuel | 137 | Tesco 34%, Owen's family 24%, Caradog 24% | |
John Lewis Partnership | Retail | 7,759 | 98,000 | Employees 100% |
Stemcor | Commodities | 6,254 | 1,860 | Ralph Oppenheimer 71%, mgt |
Swire | Conglomerate | 79,194 | Swire family 67% | |
Palmer and Harvey | Wholesale, Distribution and Retail | 3,255 | Mgt and employees 74%, ex-employees 26% | |
McLaren Technology Group | Conglomerate: Technology Consumer Electronics Formula One Food & Restaurants Television Automotive | 554 | 3500 | Ron Dennis (25%) TAG Group (25%) |
Laing O'Rourke | Construction | 15,027 | ||
Brakes Group | Food | 10,000 | Bain Capital (92%), Mgt (8%) | |
JCB | Construction and Agriculture Machinery | 10,500 | ||
Arcadia Group | Clothing | 2,682 | 44,030 | |
Virgin Atlantic | Airline | 8,631 | Virgin Group 51%, Delta Airlines 49% | |
Firstsource | Business Process Management | 6,000 | ||
European Metal Recycling | Recycling | 2,226 | ||
Iceland Ltd | Retail | 13,462 | ||
Bestway Group | Conglomerate: Wholesale Cement Banking | 5,500 | ||
Arnold Clark Automobiles | 8,500 | |||
Shop Direct Group | 18,688 | |||
TI Automotive | 17,360 | |||
Acromas Holdings | Holding company | 14,152 | ||
SSP | 29,551 | |||
Thames Water | 4,913 | |||
Dixons Carphone | 40,000+ | |||
MRH | 375 | |||
Wilkinson | 23,063 | |||
Pentland Group | 15,468 | |||
Specsavers | 30,000 | |||
New Look | 22,605 | |||
Anglian Water | 6,898 | |||
Clarks | 14,389 | |||
2 Sisters Food Group | 9,061 | |||
Iglo | 2,941 | |||
United Biscuits | 8,156 | |||
Bibby Line | 5,610 | |||
AMC | 1,066 | |||
20:20 Mobile | 1,251 | |||
Enterprise | 9,924 | 3i 57%, Equiom Trust 23%, mgt 20% | ||
Findus | 5,651 | Lion Capital | ||
Matalan | 15,858 | |||
Gala Coral Group | 18,125 | Apollo 26%, Cerberus 18%, Goldman Sachs 8% | ||
Balli Holdings | 175 | |||
Mott MacDonald | 17,000 | Trust 50%, employees 50% | ||
Linpac | 6,218 | |||
Unipart | 8,533 | |||
Willmott Dixon | Construction | 2,845 | ||
River Island | Clothing | 15,155 | ||
Wates | Construction | 2,650 | ||
Marshall Group | 4,191 | |||
Vita | 4,769 | |||
Healthcare at Home | 1,339 | |||
Arup | Construction consultancy | 9,934 | Employee trust | |
William Grant | 1,467 | |||
Kelda Group | 3,138 | |||
Westcoast | 755 | |||
KCA Deutag | 6,696 | |||
Merlin Entertainments | 12,364 | |||
Mace | Construction | 3,173 | ||
AF Blakemore & Son | 5,809 | |||
Just Retirement | 483 | |||
Partnership | 311 | |||
Dyson | 3,100 | |||
Moto | 4,696 | |||
Biffa | 6,250 | |||
Watson Petroleum | 667 | |||
Arqiva | 1,980 | |||
Northgate Information Solutions | 10,643 | |||
Bourne Leisure | 11,724 | |||
Martin McColl | 12,013 | |||
Virgin Trains | 2,912 | |||
Sir Robert McAlpine | Construction | 1,956 | ||
Greenhous Group | 574 | |||
Monarch Holdings | 2,832 | |||
UK Fuels | 138 | |||
Doncasters | 5,014 | |||
Samworth Brothers | 7,323 | |||
Formula One | 266 | |||
Odeon & UCI | 9,591 | |||
TJ Morris | Retail | 6,912 | ||
John Laing | Property | 1,230 | ||
B&M Retail | Retail | 8,864 | ||
Bowmer & Kirkland | Construction | 1,471 | ||
Dunbia | Food | 3,010 | ||
Telereal Trillium | Property | 591 | ||
OCS Group | 56,065 | Goodliffe family | ||
Northern & Shell Media Group | 1,347 | |||
Travelex | 7,022 | |||
House of Fraser | 5,087 | |||
Keepmoat | 2,917 | |||
Spire Healthcare | 6,353 | |||
Bloor Holdings | 2,281 | |||
Monsoon | Clothing | 4,314 | ||
Southern Water | Water | 1,505 | ||
Listers | 1,616 | |||
Poundland | 8,602 | |||
DFS | 2,792 | |||
Welcome Break | 4,165 | |||
Asco | 1,612 | |||
Harrods Group | 3,675 | |||
JCT600 | 1,359 | |||
Hannover Acceptances | 1,848 |
Former private companies
Former members of the largest 100 private companies in the UK could have ceased to remain on the list for three main reasons.
They may have converted into a public company (like those on the FTSE 100, listed with the London Stock Exchange), or have seen a decline in sales, or at worst gone into an insolvency procedure, been sold, broken up, or liquidated.
See also
- Top Track 250, with the list of companies in 2008, the Sunday Times list of the 250 mid-market (non-listed) companies in the UK.
- Sunday Times Fast Track 100
- Other lists
- List of largest companies by revenue, worldwide
- List of corporate collapses and scandals, on major bankruptcies historically and worldwide
- List of trade unions in the United Kingdom
- List of largest United Kingdom employers, including the public sector
- List of companies of Germany
- List of private equity firms
- Stock market lists
- List of stock market indices
- Financial Times Global 500, the BBC Global 30 and the Fortune Global 500, list the world's largest corporations by market capitalisation
- FTSE 250 and FTSE techMARK 100, a longer FT list, and one for the "new economy"
- Dow Jones and the DAX 30, equivalent to the FT 30 in the US and Germany
- S&P 100 and the HDAX, top 100 in the US and top 110 in Germany
- AEX index
References
- ↑ "Fast Track 100". Sunday Times. 24 June 2012