TJ Morris joins top 100
TJ Morris, the Liverpool-based discount retailer behind the Home Bargains brand, has joined the top 100 privately-owned UK companies as ranked by turnover.
The family-owned firm has made 98th position in the latest Sunday Times Deloitte Top Track 100 league table, to be published this weekend.
The business joins six other companies in the league table that have head offices in the North West. Together they employ almost 55,000 staff and have combined earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £627m on sales of £8.8bn.
TJ Morris owns 250 Home Bargains stores nationwide. The company has expanded in the recession and invested £35m at its Liverpool warehouse and distribution centre to enable it to supply 350 shops, a target it aims to reach by 2013.
TJ Morris is the seventh largest in the region with ebitda of £61m on sales of £590m in the year to June 2010. It employs 4,800 staff.
The region’s biggest firm, by sales, is Shop Direct. The Liverpool-based online retailer is controlled by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay and owns brands such as Littlewoods and Woolworths. In the year to April 2010 it achieved ebitda of £140m on sales of £1.9bn. It employs 16,200 staff.
The business is ranked 17th in the league table, up one place on last year. Warrington-based European Metal Recycling is in 18th place, down from eighth last year.
Crewe-based mobile phone distributor 20:20 Mobile is 32nd, up from 46th; Bibby Line Group is 34th, up from 38th and Matalan is in 38th place, down from 36th. Preston-based support services firm Enterprise made 40th place, down from 39th.
Paul Lupton, head of corporate finance advisory for the UK regions, at Deloitte said: “Large private companies are playing an increasingly important role in the UK’s economy, and it is great to see the Northwest feature again in this year’s league table.
“While current macroeconomic conditions leave no room for complacency, the featured companies have proved their resilience and adaptability, and they continue to make an invaluable contribution towards sustaining jobs and growth.”
Of the companies in the league table, 47 are backed by private equity, and the remaining 53 are owned by entrepreneurs, families or management and staff.
Most of the companies (57) are based in London and the South East, and nearly a fifth (17) have headquarters in the Midlands. The remainder are split as follows: South West (6), North West (7), Scotland (4), North East and Yorkshire (4), East (2), Wales (2), and Northern Ireland (1).
