TOP 500 COMPANIES
Boots once again heads the list of the regions top 500 companies.
Trouble at the top
Corporate scandals, global downturn and war - everyone is agreed that the UK corporate landscape has faced unprecedented change in the past 12 months. and as our analysis of the region's top companies shows, the impact on the midlands has been just as great. Research: Rob Mayfield; Introduction: Jim Pendrill; profiles: Erikka Askeland and Lisa Miles
Running a big company has never been easy, but given the enormous baggage that now comes with being at the helm of a multi-million or billion pound business it is little wonder there is a perception that the UK's best corporate brains are increasingly taking their talent elsewhere.
Heaven help you of course if you are on the public market too, a market that has been ruthless in punishing the mistakes of many of Britain's most famous companies.
Part of that baggage today includes handling enormous change at all levels of business. Indeed, if there is one streak that runs through an analysis of what has been going on in the boardrooms of our region's top 10 or 20 companies, it is that over the past 12 months they have almost all had to undergo major strategic change.
Of course any business will always continually restructure and reinvent itself. It is just that the whole process is happening so much more quickly these days as businesses respond to change.
Our top company in our unique survey of the region's biggest companies based on turnover and profitability, Boots (which incidentally easily tops our survey for the second year running), is a classic case in point. The company has undergone a year of upheavals, not only in terms of its strategic direction but also in the boardroom - a saga that isn't over yet.
GKN at number two has also had a rollercoaster year too. Its share price has plummeted, but in recent times it has begun to surprise the City again with its strong performance under the helm of new chief executive Kevin Smith. It also looks set to benefit from increased US defence spending in the aftermath of the Gulf War. A classic case of responding to change.
Further down our top 10 we come to Marconi, a cause cxe9lxe8bre whose downfall somehow set the ground for the malaise that still hangs over UK plc.
As our profile overleaf shows, only now is the company - with its still substantial Midlands interests - re-emerging from a tortuous financial restructuring that has left shareholders owning only a fraction of a new company which will be largely owned by creditors.
Another top 10 company, Peugeot, has also been one beset by strife - this time on the industrial relations front. What the combined impact of the dispute and the UK's procrastinations over the euro (Peugeot wants the UK to join to keep their Coventry plant competitive) will be remains to be seen.
But let's not be too downbeat, for there are dozens of success stories coming through in our survey yet again.
Take our cover story subject this month, Gala. Who would have thought that five years after chief executive John Kelly did his original management buy-in he would now be in charge of a company worth £31.2bn in the eyes of venture capitalists. They deservedly rise well up our ranking this year to 41.
Other fast risers, which we profile separately on page 32, include Lynx Express which has likewise experienced rapid expansion since a management buyout in 1997. Bostik Findley, the makers of all things sticky, is another unsung hero as it reaps the benefits of continually launching new and successful products.
Certain sectors continue to shine too. The contribution and value of food and drink to the regional economy just keeps growing and growing. This year no less than six companies make it into our top 50 - Coors (which acquired Bass Brewers from Interbrew late in 2001), Six Continents Retail (which as we went to press was relisting as Mitchells & Butlers following the demerger of hotels and pubs), Scottish & Newcastle, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries, Carlsberg Tetley and Enterprise Inns. One has slipped out of our top 50 though, namely HP Bulmer which has paid a huge price for an over-ambitious expansion programme and the discovery of a black hole in its accounts.
Housebuilders go from strength to strength too. Wilson Bowden, George Wimpey and Wilson Connelly all make it into our top 30 and are among the most unheralded success stories in the Midlands. Read on to find out more of the same.
So maybe running a big company isn't all bad news after all - as long as you're not making the bad news, that is.
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