Transport firm Arriva overtakes Nissan to be the best
Jul 15 2009 By Iain Laing, The Journal
TRANSPORT company Arriva is today back at the top of the list of the North East's Top 250 companies, which celebrated the biggest and best businesses in the region.
The Sunderland plc – with a £3bn-plus turnover – edged out Wearside’s giant Nissan business at the head of the eagerly awaited annual league of the largest companies by revenue in the North East.
The Top 250, which is published in a 76-page supplement inside nebusiness today, has been compiled for The Journal by Durham Business School.
The Journal editor Brian Aitken said the list showed that, despite the recession, the region remained a fertile ground for businesses and entrepreneurs.
"This gives us a chance to recognise and celebrate the achievements of the companies in the North East which are doing their bit to keep the region’s economy as buoyant as possible," he will tell executives at the Top 250 launch at the Copthorne Hotel in Newcastle today.
"These are companies who demonstrate the ability, the grit, the ingenuity and the innovation to react to market demands."
He said that although the list, which is based on companies’ most recently submitted results, would not yet show the effect of the recession it did show the strength and promise of the region’s brightest businesses.
This year there are more new entries and climbers up the table than last year and Mr Aitken highlighted the success of six firms on the list which had worked up multi-million pound revenues even though they had less than 15 staff each. They included Gateshead retailer ethicalsuperstore which turned over £6.5m last year even though it was formed less than three years ago. But the top of the list is dominated by well-established names such as Arriva which now runs bus and trains in Britain and 11 other countries.
It had pulled ahead of last year’s number two, the engineering services giant Amec at Darlington. Amec slips from second last year to third position.
Among seven changes in the leading 10 places Newcastle-based train and bus company Go Ahead retains fourth place. Huntsman, which sold part of its Teesside operations to Sabic in 2006, stays fifth.
Sage, the Newcastle based global software group, is up one to sixth, housebuilder Bellway down one to seventh, while Britain’s biggest care home operator Southern Cross Health Care is eighth in the list sponsored this year by Darlington-based vehicle hire group Northgate plc. The highest climber is Tanfield, pinning big North East hopes on the future of "green" electric vans.
It has soared 97 places to 62 in the table based on turnovers.
Highest ranked new entrant is Cumbrian Holdings, Britain’s third largest chilled seafood provider, with operations now at Seaham and Amble. It has shot into the list at 52.
Peter Vassallo, the environmentally-aware Tyneside award-winning businessman, opened the Seaham side of the business only in 2007, six years after the start-up of Cumbrian Holdings at Maryport. Tracey Wallis Million of, Durham Business School, which compiles the list for The Journal, says: "We predicted last year that the North East Top 250 listing for 2009 would be fascinating due to the challenging times that we were headed toward.
"The testing time for all companies since then has made a significant impact to this year’s listing.
"But it’s not all doom and gloom in the North East.
"We need to highlight the successes and accomplishments of companies who are battling through the economic crisis."
:: Click here to see a list of the Top 250 business and to read the publication in full.
