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.

Largest private companies

This is a list of private companies in the United Kingdom, some of which based on the Sunday Times "Top Track".

Company	Sector	Sales (£m)	Employees	Main shareholders
Ineos	Chemicals	19,570	7,942	Jim Ratcliffe (75%), mgt
Greenergy	Fuel		137	Tesco 34%, Owen's family 24%, Caradog 24%
John Lewis Partnership	Retail	7,759	85,700	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%
Premium Technologies	IT		5,380
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
GadJet			www.gadjetsupply.com
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