Eight West Midlands firms make largest foreign-owned companies list
WEST Midlands-headquartered firms including Jaguar Land Rover, Aldi and Tulip have been included in the inaugural Sunday Times/PA Consulting Inward Investment Track 50, which lists the country’s 50 largest foreign employers.
Published in the newspaper this weekend, the league table ranks overseas-headquartered multi-nationals by their UK staff numbers.
Eight companies featured on the league table have their UK head offices in the West Midlands, and together they employ almost 100,000 people in the UK.
The highest ranking is car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover, which has its UK head office in Coventry and is owned by India’s Tata Motors.
It employs more than 19,000 people and it is building a new engine plant in Wolverhampton which will create a further 1,400 jobs.
German supermarket chain Aldi is based in Atherstone and has 11,500 UK staff. It opened its 500th UK store at the end of last year and plans to open a further 50. It ranks at number 26 on the list.
Energy giants npower and E.ON – both owned by German parents – are on the list. Worcester’s npower is at 27 and Coventry’s E.On is at 29.
French owned building materials maker and distributor Saint-Gobain, which is based in Coventry, makes the list at number 13 while fellow Coventry firm Lloyds Pharmacy – which has a US parent – is at number 19.
Atherstone-based logistics provider TNT Express, which has a Dutch parent, is at number 42 on the list while Danish owned food company Tulip, based in Warwick, is at 49.
Colm Reilly, who leads PA Consulting Group’s economic development unit and is managing director of UKTI’s investment services arm, said: “These are exciting times for UK inward investment and companies operating in the West Midlands show what can be achieved.”
