Almost all quiet again this year at the top of Insider's ranking of the North West's Top 500 companies, as compiled by Rob Mayfield and Rob Hoare
Irish property developer Pierse, making the most of the North West's long- running love affair with construction, may have muscled its way into number two this year, but the triumvirate of The Co-operative Group, United Utilities and Pilkington remains unflustered. Neither have talks of mergers, new chief executives and Japanese takeovers ruffled their feathers.
Next year the Co-op will surely sit firmly at the top again, particularly if a proposed merger with Rochdale-based United Co-operatives takes place, for which talks have opened. And Philip Green looks set to take Warrington-headquartered utilities giant United Utilities to even greater heights, building on the work of his predecessor, John Roberts.
So how do we come to this ranking each year? Insider's Top 500 ranking is obtained by measuring the performance of companies by a combination of their turnover and profitability. First, the Top 1,000 companies were ranked by turnover and then the same 1,000 were ranked again by pre-tax profit. The two rankings were averaged and the Top 500 were drawn in order from that list. To separate those companies that finished on the same average, the one with greater pre-tax profit took precedence.
Only companies with registered offices in the North West are included and all figures are taken from the latest returns at Companies House.
The figures given for last year's ranking may not correspond with those published last January because each company's position is based on how it would have fared in 2006 among the same group of 500.
Also, some accounts have been restated since last year's ranking was drawn up and the new listing reflects this.
For a quick way of finding a particular company's position in the Top 500, please refer to the notes on page 41, where the companies are listed alphabetically with their ranking. The notes are intended to cover special circumstances that are not apparent from the main tables.
The Insider ranking is an informative snapshot of the region's best performing businesses and every effort has been made to eradicate errors and omissions. The finished product does not, of course, imply any investment recommendation on our part.
A fuller version of the Top 500, containing full addresses, contact names and much more statistical information than we have room for in the magazine is available on CD.
Please call Michelle Ferster on 0161 907 9701 for further details.
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Also in: January 2007
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Be amazed, be afraid
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