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 Gases Europe
· 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
· First Choice Holidays
· Ford Motor Company
· 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 Shop Direct
· Lloyds Banking Group
· Marks & Spencer
· Merrill Lynch Europe
· Motorola
· National Express Group
· National Grid Transco
· Nationwide Building Society
· Nestle
· Next
· Nomura International
· O2
· 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 Supermarket
· Scottish & Newcastle
· Scottish & Southern Energy
· Shell
· Skandia Life Assurance Co
· Smiths Group
· Somerfield Stores
· Standard Chartered Bank
· Standard Life Group
· Tate & Lyle
· Taylor Wimpey
· Tesco
· Thomas Cook
· Thomson Reuters
· Unilever
· Vauxhall Motors
· Virgin Media
· Vodafone
· Volkswagen Group
· WH Smith
· William Hill Organization
· Wm Morrison
· Wolseley
· WPP
Top 100 Companies Ranked By Employee Size

· Abbey
· Akzo Nobel
· Alliance Boots
· Amec
· Arcadia Group
· 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
· Carphone Warehouse
· Castrol
· CEMEX
· Centrica
· Coats
· Compass Group
· Co-operative Group
· Corus Group
· Debenhams Retail
· Diageo
· DSG International
· EDS
· EMI Group
· First
· Ford Motor Company
· GKN
· GlaxoSmithKline
· Grampian Country Food
· Greggs
· Group 4 Securicor
· Hanson
· HBOS
· Heatrae Sadia Heating
· Homebase Group
· HSBC Bank
· IBM
· IMI
· Invensys

 · ITV
· John Lewis Partnership
· Kingfisher
· Ladbrokes
· Le Meridien Hotels
· Lloyds Banking Group
· Manpower
· Marks & Spencer
· Matalan
· McDonald's Restaurants
· Mitchells & Butlers Retail
· Morgan Crucible Company
· National Express
· Nationwide Building Society
· Next
· O2
· 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 Supermarket
· Scottish & Newcastle
· Serco Group
· Smiths Group
· Sodexo
· Somerfield Stores
· Spirit Group
· Stagecoach Group
· Standard Chartered Bank
· Tesco
· Thomas Cook
· Thomson Holidays
· Unilever
· Vodafone
· Whitbread Group
· Wilkinson Hardware Stores
· Wincanton
· Wm Morrison
· WPP
· Xerox