Representatives of the region’s biggest businesses attended a breakfast event to mark BusinessLive’s listing of the Top 500 Businesses in the East Midlands for 2022.

The event, at the Radisson Blu Hotel at East Midlands Airport, was hosted by broadcaster Martin Ballard and sponsored by Leicester property developers Bradgate Estates.

As well as being used to reveal the Top 20 biggest companies on the list, it also included presentations for the biggest business, the highest new entry on the list and the highest climber.

The awards went to – respectively – Nottingham’s Boots 海角视频, whose various businesses had a combined turnover of £8.7 billion for the period the list covered; GLW Feeds, in Shepshed, Leicestershire, which entered the list at 92 with a £145 million turnover; and Belcan International in Derby, which had a turnover of £86.5 million and moved from 329 to 148 on the 2022 list.

Alan Penhale, director of supply chain at Boots 海角视频 in Nottingham, said he was delighted to be there to represent the pharmacy chain and accept an award for its top spot.

He said Boots had continued to thrive because of its investment in talent and technology, particularly during the pandemic.

He said: “Covid gave us a lot of challenges and opportunities and we were at the forefront in areas such as NHS testing and the vaccine roll-out.

“Boost.com has doubled in size since pre-pandemic and there are lots of services we offer now that we did not offer before.

“It was difficult, but we came out the other side stronger – our last quarter results were very impressive and we can say that even despite those challenges there are still lots of opportunities.

“The talent that we have is absolutely critical to that – as is being part of the local community.”

The 2022 list was compiled by researchers from the Business Schools at De Montfort, Derby and Nottingham Trent Universities, supported by the East Midlands Chamber.

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It used accounts filed between July 2019 and June 2020, which showed the 500 companies had a combined turnover of £90.4 billion and employed almost 470,000 people.

The Top 20 companies alone employ 200,000 people between them and generate revenues of £50 billion.

The Top 500 will be published in full on BusinessLive later this week.

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Martin Ballard compered the breakfast reception
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East Midlands Chamber CEO Scott Knowles at a breakfast reception for the Top 500 Companies in the East Midlands 2022

(Image: Alex Hannam)
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Martin Briggs, technical manager at GLW Feeds (left) with Joe Levy from Bradgate Estates

(Image: Alex Hannam)
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Alan Penhale, director of supply chain at the East Midlands' biggest company, Boots 海角视频 in Nottingham
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Joe Levy, managing director of list sponsor Bradgate Estates
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Guests at the Top 500 Business Breakfast
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Angela Tooley, enterprise development manager at the University of Derby
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(left to right) Harinder Sahota, Rik Pancholi and Charlotte Clarke from Pattersons Commercial Law
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A breakfast reception for the Top 500 Companies in the East Midlands 2022, at the Radisson Blu Hotel East Midlands
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Guests at the Top 500 Companies in the East Midlands 2022 breakfast
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Guests at the event
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Networking at the Top 500 Companies in the East Midlands breakfast
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The Radisson Blu Hotel hosted the event
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Breakfast for the Top 500 Companies in the East Midlands 2022