Insider Media Limited

High-street retailers Next and Boots have stormed Midlands Business Insider’s Top 500 table for 2011. The list, which names the top performing companies from across the region by their turnover and profitability, ranks Nottingham-based Boots at number two and Leicester retailer Next at number three. Northampton-based Travis Perkins enters the list at number five.

All three companies remain unmoved from last year’s positions.

Insider’s Top 500 ranking – which lists the top companies in both the East and West Midlands - was obtained by measuring the performance of companies by a combination of their turnover and profitability.

Boots, which became private in an £11.1bn takeover in 2007, was the third UK retailer to post profits of more than £1bn behind Tesco and Marks & Spencer this year.

Chief executive Andy Hornby said: "This is a particularly good performance, given the challenging economic conditions we faced throughout the year."

Fashion and home retailer Next remained at the third spot in the table, recording a turnover of £3.4bn and pre-tax profit of more than £505m.

Also unmoved from its 2010 position was Northampton building products supplier Travis Perkins. The company had pre-tax profits of £212.7m on a turnover of £2.9bn.

Other East Midlands companies inside the top 500 include Leicester-based Alliance & Leicester at number 13 and Matlock’s Eco-Bat Technologies in the spot below.

Leicester’s Lafarge Cement and Styner also made the list at numbers 15 and 18 respectively.

In February, Lafarge joined forces with Anglo American to combine their UK contracting businesses. The joint venture, which will include the Lafarge subsidiaries and Wolverhampton-based Tarmac, is expected to generate recurring synergies of £60m per year.

Derby’s Rolls-Royce made it to number 23 after securing several major deals, including a £173.8m order from Turkish Airlines for its Trent 700 engines. The engines will be used to power three Airbus A330 freighter aircraft. The company also recently launched a £2.7bn bid for German manufacturer Tognum AG alongside Daimler AG. The offer is currently awaiting shareholder approval.