The Ulster Business Top 100 Northern Ireland Companies 2024, in association with KPMG, showcases the performance of our biggest and best businesses. Analyst Jonathan Cushley, who compiled the list, breaks down all the key facts and figures from this year’s leading business list
The performance of the Top 100 companies shows record sales of £35.2bn, up some 17% on prior year performance.
However, average pre-tax profits fell by 8% to £1.32bn, while shareholder value grew.
The Ulster Business Top 100 Listing incorporates the results of Northern Ireland domiciled companies, either Northern Ireland registered or when a significant portion of the company’s business is driven and transacted through the region.
For the 2024 listing the majority of figures relate to late 2022 or 2023 financial year end filings – in essence a period representing when companies filed results for the first-time post pandemic.
Since the inception of the Top 100 listing more than 30 years ago, turnover has been used as the key identifier of performance, however, we also review pre-tax profit and shareholder value (tangible net worth) providing a rounded view on individual company and Top 100 performance.
For benchmarking purposes comparisons have been made with previous Top 100 editions. These comparisons will include results for companies that are no longer included in the current Top 100 listing, this is due to the fluidity of financial performance.
Turnover
Sales generated by the companies listed in the 2024 Top 100 increased by 17% to £35.2bn from £30.1bn. This is the largest sales figure generated by the Top 100 since the listing’s inception.
It has seen some exceptional performances, for the first time six individual companies have exceeded £1bn in sales, with a seventh Almac Group Ltd almost certainly likely to break the barrier in time for the 2025 listing.
Moy Park Holdings (Europe) Ltd has regained the top spot from W&R Barnett Ltd, with LCC Group Ltd, Power NI Energy Ltd, John Henderson Holdings Ltd and John Graham Holdings Ltd all achieving over the £1bn sales mark.
A point of note, LCC Group Ltd’s turnover for year ending 31/03/2023 relates to an 18-month accounting period.
Both sales and pre-tax profitability performance were significantly impacted by results posted by Randox Holdings Ltd which dropped from 14 on the list to 62. Turnover dropped by some £452.3m and pre-tax profit by £229.4m.
Another first for the Top 100 listing is that only one company listed (D&W Carlisle Ltd) posted a sub £100m turnover – boding well for the 2025 listing when in all likelihood all 100 firms’ turnover will exceed £100m for the first time.
Profitability
As mentioned, the sales/turnover of the Top 100 has grown by 17%, however conversely the profitability of the companies has disappointingly decreased by 8% to £1.3bn from £1.4bn in the corresponding financial period.
Unfortunately, nine companies within the Top 100 made pre-tax losses, these accounted for some £592m. This performance represents an overall decrease in profit margin (pre-tax profit/sales) across the listing to 3.7% against a prior year profit margin of 4.8%.
Tangible net worth (shareholder return)
The final measure we tend to use to gauge a company’s success that we review is its value to its shareholders. In its simplest form this is calculated as the shareholders funds (issued capital) and retained earnings (intangible assets).
The value of this year’s Top 100 Northern Ireland Companies sits at £10.4bn.
Six of the companies showed a negative tangible net worth, a condition in which a company’s liabilities exceed its assets.
The shareholders return for the 100 companies equates to profit/tangible net worth as a percentage of 12.7%.
Sales to equity ratio defined as turnover/tangible net worth, indicates how many pounds are generated with each pound of investment – for the latest filed results this equates to 3.4.
Employees
The Ulster Business Top 100 employs a total of 102,720 people, figures lifted directly from each company’s financial accounts show.
Each employee within the Top 100 accounted for £342,815 turnover – sales/employee and accounted for £12,840 profit – profit/employee.
The top 10 companies employ 31% of the Top 100’s workforce.
Location
This year’s Top 100 Listing mirrored that of 2023 – 63 companies remain with either head office or registered address located in the east, with 37 located in the west.