Aston Martin and bet365 shine on Sunday Times list
Stoke bookmaker bet365 is the leading West Midlands business on a league table ranking the country's top mid-market private companies.
It rose 19 places on the Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250, to be fully published on Sunday, and is among ten West Midlands businesses to feature on the list.
Ninety-three per cent owned by the Coates family, bet365 had about £501m-worth of sales with £95.4m operating profit and 1,911 staff in its draft annual accounts to March 2011, which have not yet been finalised.
Also featured from the West Midlands was Warwickshire-based Aston Martin, which was ranked 16th, after reporting a 36 per cent rise in turnover to £474.3m following the launch of four-door sports car, the Rapide. It has recently expanded its distribution network to 135 showrooms with openings in India and South America with further dealerships planned in China.
Other West Midlands businesses featured included car distributor IM Group (ranked 40th); Birmingham car dealer Rybrook (69th); Warwickshire recruitment agency Pertemps (106th); Worcestershire enginerring and building business Thomas Vale (133rd); Stoke-based GSH Group (137th); Johnsons Cars in Redditch (198th); cooking oil manufacturer KTC (Edibles) (203rd) and Stoke car dealer Holdcroft (248th).
Midlands' companies featured on the list achieved sales of £7bn in their recent annual accounts and employ 32,300 staff in total - up from 1,400 the year before.
The list is compiled by Oxford research business Fast Track and sponsored by HSBC and Grant Thornton.
