SCR Top 100 Survey; Growth for the region’s top companies

The Sheffield City Region Top 100 Companies for 2016 was published today; the first annual Business Survey compiled by Shorts.

Click here to view the 2016 Top 100.

Despite the current uncertainty being experienced as a result of the forthcoming Brexit vote, the overall economic environment has shown signs of improvement in the last 12 months. This year’s survey shows that the region’s top companies have sustained levels of turnover but pleasingly have increased both profits and employment.

The headline results from the survey are;

• Turnover for the Top 100 companies between 2013 and 2015 showed consistent growth. This slowed in 2016 with a small overall reduction of 1%.
• Profits before tax have increased significantly by over 65%.
• Employment has increased by 3% compared to 2015 with the Top 100 currently employing almost 17,000 more than in 2014.

The Sheffield City region boasts an impressive blend of strength and diversity which is reflected in the results of this year’s survey with 86 of the companies repeating their appearance within the region’s Top 100.

Whilst the construction and building products sector experienced an aggregate fall in turnover, the sector reported an increase in profitability of almost 30%, with the creation of 1,000 new jobs compared to 2015.

Clearly enjoying the current improvement in the economy, motor dealers saw a 12% growth in turnover, a 25% increase in profitability and 6% increase in employment. The retail sector suffered an overall reduction in turnover, profitability and employment reflecting a combination of a challenging price driven market and the ever increasing impact of technology on our shopping habits.

Key to the future prosperity of the region will be our ability to grow our knowledge based economy. It is therefore pleasing to report that the information and communication sector enjoyed a 6% increase in turnover and a 31% increase in profitability. However, manufacturing has had a challenging year and although turnover and employment increased by 5% and 3% respectively, profitability fell by almost 29%. Given the continued importance of manufacturing to the region it must be hoped that the recently announced Growth Hub initiative assists in the positive development of the sector.

Overall, more of our companies have performed well: improving profits, creating jobs and investing for the future.