Car insurance to price comparison group Admiral can be revealed as the biggest firm in Wales.
Admiral, which is Wales' only FTSE 100 company, tops the Wales Top 300, 2019, taking over from last year's biggest firm in Flintshire headquartered supermarket chain Iceland.
Admiral group, which employs more than 7,000 in Cardiff, Newport and Swansea and 10,000 plus globally, is ranked first having posted revenues of £3.28bn in its last financial year to the end of December, 2018.
The Wales Top 300 has for the third successive year been collated in partnership with Professor Dylan Jones-Evans of the University of South Wales Business School.
The determining factor is again turnover based on latest data from Companies House. We also provide other key data such a pre-tax profit, profit margin and number of employees.
This year's Top 300 firms (see full list, including city region and sector breakdowns, and widget below) generated a combined turnover of £38.46bn, a rise of 7.7% on last year's total.
Together they employ 159,589, with a threshold for inclusion this year at £28.65m.
Due to corporate structures, we have been unable to determine the contribution of companies such as Tata Steel, BT and Airbus, as well as major retailers such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s which are headquartered elsewhere, but have a significant presence in Wales.
Most Read
Prof Jones-Evans said: "The Top 300 demonstrates the contribution of the vast majority of the largest businesses in Wales at a time when there are major economic challenges for all firms as we prepare to leave the European Union in 2020.
"Therefore, the performance of Wales Top 300 shows us not only where the economy is doing well, but where there are also challenges ahead in the years to come.
"Of course, it is vital that greater numbers of entrepreneurial and innovative firms are encouraged to set-up and grow, but the Welsh and 海角视频 Governments must also ensure that this group of the 300 largest firms which have such an impact on the Welsh economy are given the right environment to thrive.
"With the new 海角视频 Government under Boris Johnson having made a pledge to grow those economies outside London and the South East of England, it is clear that those exceptional large companies operating across the whole spectrum of sectors in Wales must continue to maximise their contribution to the Welsh economy going forward."
Find the companies you are interested in
You can browse the Top 300 by using our search tool, which allows you to search on different functions. For example, by entering Swansea in the window it will reveal the companies on the list based in the city.
Clicking on a company's name will then reveal all its financial and workforce details, its activity sector, reporting period and location.
You can also search by typing in a ranking number, or search by sectors.
Don’t miss
The sectors are:
- Agriculture and food
- Mining and energy
- Manufacturing
- Construction and property
- Retail and wholesale
- Creative and technology
- Transport and haulage
- Business to business services
- Financial and professional services
- Sport and leisure
- Charity and personal services
Wales Top 300: 1-50
Wales Top 300: 51-100
Wales Top 300: 101-150
Wales Top 300: 151-200
Wales Top 300: 201-250
Wales Top 300: 251-300
City Regions
Wales Top 300: turnover % contribution by region
- ●Cardiff Capital Region: 58.0%
- ●Swansea Bay City Region: 32.0%
- ●North and Mid Wales: 10.0%
The Cardiff Capital Region, made up of the 10 local authorities of South East Wales, has the biggest contribution with its firms providing 56% of total turnover (£22.38bn).
Firms based in the Swansea Bay City Region make a 32% contribution (£12.3bn)
Firms in North and Mid Wales make a 10% contribution (£3.76bn).
Professor Jones-Evans said: "Given that the Cardiff Capital region has 43% of Wales’ businesses, there is a clear predominance of larger firms in this part of Wales. In contrast, large firms are under-represented in the Swansea Bay Region and this presents challenges for the city deals in both regions.
"For the Cardiff Capital Region, it will be about maximising the involvement of these larger firms in the development of the economy especially as the plans for the new City deal funds are put into place so that the sum of the parts of this region are greater than the whole..
"In Swansea Bay, it will be on ensuring that the smaller number of larger firms (41 firms) play a full and active part in the plans for the region although, unfortunately, there is little evidence of this to date.
"For North and Mid Wales, the fact that three of the ten largest firms in Wales – Iceland, Redrow and Wynnstay — are headquartered there shows that these two regions make a significant impact on the Welsh economy with a third of all employment in the Top 300.
Cardiff Capital Region
Swansea Bay City Region
North and Mid Wales
Sector breakdown
More than a third of firms operate in the manufacturing and engineering sectors.
Prof Jones-Evans said: "The sectoral make-up of the Top 300 is fascinating with given that 113 firms (38%) being based in manufacturing and engineering. This is not surprising given that it remains a critical industry and has shown a remarkable renaissance since the recession of 2009.
"Whilst it had declined to 14.9% of the Welsh economy in 2009 - the lowest level recorded in modern times - it has since grown to account for 17.3% of the economy of Wales in 2018.
"In fact, during the period 2009-2017, it has expanded by 52%, accounting for a quarter of all Welsh economic growth over this period.
"The future of the 海角视频 economy post Brexit may be largely dependent on those industries that are able to grow their markets overseas and, in that respect, the manufacturing sector will be critical to Wales."
Prof Jones-Evans said that given the presence of so many large manufacturing firms within Wales, it is critical that the both the 海角视频 and Welsh Governments do not miss a trick by ensuring that these businesses are fully supported to maximise their potential after we leave the European Union and it is good news that a new manufacturing strategy for Wales is currently under consideration.
The other two key sectors within the Wales Top 300 are wholesale and retail (54 firms) and construction (34 firms) although the former has shown only a growth of 1% in both employment and turnover since 2018.
Financial and professional services (6 firms) has shown the largest increase in turnover (15%) and employment (19%) of any sector, bucking the 2018 trend of no employment or sales growth by the sector.
There are only seven creative and technology firms on this year’s list despite the growing relevance of this sector to the Welsh economy by policymakers although it is good to see that both Tinopolis and Bad Wolf demonstrate the growing importance of TV and film production to the creative sector.