To demonstrate the sort of companies you will find on a Top 1000 list, here is a list of the top 100 companies, ranked firstly by turnover (best for marketing, finance and chief executive lists) and then ranked by number of employees (best for lists of personnel and training contacts).

You will find that our lists differ from those on the financial pages of newspapers, which rank companies by market capitalisation (share price multiplied by number of shares issued); this method of ranking excludes privately-owned companies, such as Arcadia, Boots, EMI, Mars and Virgin, partnerships such as John Lewis and Co-operative Trading Group and companies quoted on European and US stock markets such as Nestle, Google and Microsoft. The financial press rankings suit investors, while our rankings are better for marketing, mailing and telemarketing purposes and also more accurately reflect the UK corporate landscape.


Top 100 Companies Ranked by Annual Turnover

· 3i Group
· Abbey
· Aegon UK
· Alliance Boots
· Amec
· Apple
· Arnold Clark Automobiles
· Asda Stores
· Associated British Foods
· AstraZeneca
· Aviva
· BAE Systems
· Balfour Beatty
· Barclays Bank
· Barratt Developments
· BOC Group
· Booker
· BP
· British Airways
· British American Tobacco
· British Sky Broadcasting
· British Telecom
· Bunzl
· Camelot Group
· Centrica
· Compass Group
· Co-operative Group
· Coral Eurobet
· Corus Group
· Diageo
· DSG International
· E.ON
· Exel
· First Choice Holidays
· Ford Motor Group
· Fujitsu
· Gallaher
· George Wimpey
· GKN
· GlaxoSmithKline
· Goldman Sachs
· Group 4 Securicor
· Hanson
· HBOS
· Hogg Robinson
· HSBC Bank
· IBM
· ICI
· Imperial Tobacco Group
· InBev
· Inchcape
· Invensys
· John Lewis Partnership

 · Johnson Matthey
· Kingfisher
· Littlewoods
· Lloyds TSB
· Marks & Spencer
· Merrill Lynch Europe
· MMO2
· Motorola
· National Express Group
· National Grid Transco
· Nationwide Building Society
· Nestle
· Next
· Nomura International
· Palmer & Harvey McLane
· Pearson
· Peugeot Motor Co
· Pilkington
· Prudential
· Reckitt Benckiser
· Reed Elsevier
· Rexam
· Rio Tinto
· Rolls-Royce
· Royal & SunAlliance
· Royal Bank of Scotland
· Royal Mail
· RWE npower
· Sainsbury's
· Scottish & Newcastle
· Scottish & Southern Energy
· Shell
· Skandia Life Assurance Co
· Smiths Group
· Somerfield Stores
· Standard Chartered Bank
· Standard Life Group
· Tate & Lyle
· Taylor Woodrow
· Tesco
· Thomas Cook
· Thomson Reuters
· Tomkins
· Unilever
· Vauxhall Motors
· Virgin Media
· Vodafone
· Volkswagen Group
· WH Smith
· William Hill Organization
· Wm Morrison
· Wolseley
· Woolworths
· WPP
Top 100 Companies Ranked By Employee Size

· Abbey
· Alliance Boots
· Amec
· Arcadia
· Argos
· Arriva
· Asda Stores
· Associated British Foods
· Atkins
· Aviva
· B&Q
· BAE Systems
· Balfour Beatty
· Barclays Bank
· BNFL
· BP
· British Airways
· British American Tobacco
· British Telecom
· BUPA
· Cable & Wireless
· Carillion
· Castrol
· CEMEX
· Centrica
· Coats
· Compass Group
· Co-operative Group
· Corus Group
· Debenhams Retail
· Diageo
· DSG International
· EDS
· EMI
· Exel
· First Group
· Ford Motor Company
· GKN
· GlaxoSmithKline
· Grampian Country Food
· Greggs
· Group 4 Securicor
· Hanson
· HBOS
· Heatrae Sadia Heating
· Homebase Group
· HSBC Bank
· IBM
· ICI
· IMI
· Invensys
· ITV

 · John Lewis Partnership
· Kingfisher
· Ladbrokes
· Le Meridien Hotels
· Lloyds TSB
· Manpower
· Marks & Spencer
· Matalan
· McDonald's Restaurants
· Mitchells & Butlers
· Morgan Crucible
· National Express
· Nationwide Building Society
· Next
· OCS Group
· Pearson
· Premier Foods
· PricewaterhouseCoopers
· Prudential
· Rank Group
· Reckitt Benckiser
· Reed Elsevier
· Rexam
· Rio Tinto
· Rolls-Royce
· Royal & SunAlliance
· Royal Bank of Scotland
· Royal Mail
· SABMiller
· Sainsbury's
· Scottish & Newcastle
· Serco Group
· Sodexo
· Somerfield Stores
· Spirit Group
· Stagecoach
· Standard Chartered Bank
· Tesco
· Thomas Cook
· Thomson Holidays
· Unilever
· Vodafone
· Whitbread
· Wilkinson Hardware Stores
· Wincanton
· Wm Morrison
· Woolworths
· WPP
· Xerox