Britain's Most Admired By Sector: Engineering & machinery

1 Rotork 61.2
2 Weir Group 60.3
3 Spirax Sarco 58.9
4 IMI 58.7
5 Smiths Group 56.3

The booming oil business helped valves and actuators business Rotork to a record first-half order book of £135m and profits up over £6m to £33.2m - not a bad first year for chief exec Peter France. Pump specialist Weir also benefited from the oil price rise, with profits for the six months to June up a whopping 97%, a figure most BMAC contenders can only dream of. Profits at Cheltenham-based industria steam business Spirax Sarco were also up in the first half, rising by 27% to £42m, although the firm has warned of a distinct softening in demand more recently. In September, fifth-place IMI became a member of the 2008 Dow Jones Sustainability Index.