Car dealer on the right road
A LEADING Scottish firm owned by a businessman who has a home by Dulnain Bridge has jumped two places to number 13 in the latest Sunday Times Deloitte Top Track 100 league table.
This year the league table features four companies that have head offices in Scotland including the car dealer Arnold Clark.
Together, the companies employ more than 17,000 staff with combined sales of £4.6 billion and profits of £477 million.
Arnold Clark is now selling in excess of 200,000 vehicles a year, which it claims makes it "Europe’s biggest privately-owned car dealer".
The company has more than 145 branches selling new and used cars, and it grew sales by six per cent to almost £2.3bn in 2010.
William Grant, the spirits distiller which makes Glenfiddich and Grant’s whiskies, grew sales to £838 million in 2009, an increase of 40 per cent on the prior year.
The big rise in sales was partially a result of the company first full year of reporting revenue from its distribution of the Stolichnaya Vodka and Remy Cointreau brands in the UK.
The companies feature on the league table alongside a host of high-profile brands.
Forty-seven of the companies are backed by private equity, such as Alliance Boots and Travelex, and the remainder are owned by families, entrepreneurs, or management and staff, including Virgin Atlantic, Clarks and Dyson.
Despite the recession, 78 of the 100 companies increased their sales from the previous financial year. Combined sales have grown since last year by 10 per cent to £175 billion, and profits have risen seven per cent to £17 billion.
Most of the companies are headquartered in Greater London (31) and the Southeast (25), and nearly a fifth (18) have headquarters in the Midlands.
The remainder are split as follows: Southwest (6), Northwest (7), Scotland (4), Northeast (4), East (2), Wales (2), and Northern Ireland (1).
The full findings were published in a special eight-page supplement with the business section of the latest The Sunday Times and on www.fasttrack.co.uk.
