The 2020 Thames Valley 250 listing revealed
This is the 11th year of the 250 list – sponsored by Gateley Legal, BDO, Henley Business School, Lloyds Bank and Vail Williams – and companies on the list have combined sales of well over £25 billion and employ over 100,000 people.
At the top of the 250 tree once again is Westcoast, the IT products supplier based at Theale. The Westcoast product range spans across the whole IT, consumable, software and electrical spectrum.
Westcoast is one of the UK’s great success stories, and it has outgunned Thames Water for yet another year – with sales approaching £2.8 b.
Based at Reading, Thames Water, the UK’s largest water and waste-water company, remains at number two in the chart with Marlow-based Urenco, an international supplier of enrichment services and fuel cycle products for the civil nuclear industry, at three.
At number four is CALA Group, the housebuilder, which was founded in 1875, and has built a reputation in the past 30 years for building premium homes with an emphasis on quality. With its head office at Wooburn Green, Bucks, CALA’s sales came in at £973.6 million.
The caterer and hospitality giant WSH completes the top five at £933m. WSH is the parent company for leading brands such as BaxterStorey and Benugo.
For many companies their position in the 250 reflects the pre-Covid period, with year-ends in 2019 before the pandemic struck. It remains to be seen how the companies will fare in next year’s list.