UK: Britain's most admired companies - League table of the UK's top 100.

LEAGUE TABLE OF THE UK'S TOP 100

'98 '97 COMPANY TOTAL AVE

1 2 Tesco 74.5 8.28

2 16 Cadbury Schweppes 72.83 8.09

3 21 Schroders 71.17 7.91

4 10 BP 70.32 7.81

5 8 SmithKline Beecham 70.11 7.79

6 4 Glaxo Wellcome 69.85 7.76

7 6 Unilever 68.82 7.65

8 17 Shell 67.59 7.51

9 19 Lloyds TSB 67.33 7.48

10 20 Boots 67.25 7.47

11 3 Marks & Spencer 67.24 7.47

12 40 Daily Mail & General Trust 66 7.33

13 72 Asda 65.75 7.31

14 9 Dewhirst 65.71 7.3

15 18 Zeneca 65.56 7.28

16 5 Smiths Industries 65.26 7.25

17 n/a Diageo 65.2 7.24

18 62 Orange 65.17 7.24

19 37 Siebe 65 7.2

20 83 Legal & General 64.33 7.15

21 11 British Telecom (BT) 64 7.11

22 1 Reuters 63.78 7.09

23 38 HSBC 63.5 7.06

24 34 Vodafone 63.4 7.04

25 22 British Land 63.38 7.04

26 70 Stakis 63.17 7.02

27 73 J Sainsbury 62.89 6.99

28 47 Bunzl 62.8 6.98

29 15 Emap 62.65 6.96

30 51 TI 62.5 6.94

31 107 Whitbread 62.35 6.93

32 41 Perpetual 62.28 6.92

33 31 British Aerospace 61.93 6.88

34 118 Provident Financial 61.89 6.88

35 104 Bank of Scotland 61.85 6.87

36 99 Courtaulds Textiles 61.75 6.86

37 14 Rentokil Initial 61.57 6.84

38 13 Reed International 61.45 6.83

39 n/a Field 61.44 6.83

40 103 Rolls-Royce 61.35 6.82

41 117 M&G 61.33 6.81

42 90 W Baird 61.33 6.81

43 23 GKN 61.31 6.81

44 128 ICI 61.12 6.79

45 60 Airtours 60.92 6.77

46 174 WPP 60.83 6.76

47 28 Granada 60.67 6.74

48 45 Land Securities 60.42 6.71

49 55 3i 59.88 6.65

50 145 GEC 59.83 6.65

51 205 Sun Life & Provincial 59.75 6.64

52 137 Kingfisher 59.71 6.63

53 93 Bass 59.68 6.63

54 48 Wassall 59.63 6.63

55 n/a Nycomed Amersham 59.44 6.6

56 54 Allied Colloids 59.44 6.6

57 197 Aegis 59.42 6.6

58 108 General Accident 59.36 6.6

59 158 W Morrison 59.22 6.58

60 25 Wolseley 59.06 6.56

61 12 Hays 59.05 6.56

62 136 Bowthorpe 59 6.56

63 7 Next 58.94 6.55

64 132 Croda International 58.84 6.54

65 94 Abbey National 58.74 6.53

66 78 Tomkins 58.63 6.51

67 n/a Gallaher 58.6 6.51

68 125 Scottish & Newcastle 58.59 6.51

69 131 Northern Foods 58.42 6.49

70 82 BPB Industries 58.39 6.49

71 122 Dixons 58.21 6.47

72 111 BTP 58.21 6.47

73 n/a Colt Telecom 58.17 6.46

74 135 Bodycote International 57.75 6.42

75 42 Sema 57.71 6.41

76 52 Blue Circle Industries 57.56 6.4

77 258 Imperial Tobacco 57.4 6.38

78 71 Misys 57.39 6.38

79 43 BSkyB 57.22 6.36

80 n/a Cobham 57.22 6.36

81 81 Euromoney Publications 57.17 6.35

82 86 Cookson 57.13 6.35

83 88 DS Smith 57 6.33

84 50 Hammerson 56.94 6.33

85 102 Standard Chartered 56.9 6.32

86 29 St Ives 56.67 6.3

87 n/a Debenhams 56.63 6.29

88 n/a Norwich Union 56.6 6.29

89 n/a Thomson Travel 56.57 6.29

90 96 Energy Group 56.5 6.28

91 140 Capital Radio 56.5 6.28

92 124 Cable & Wireless 56.42 6.27

93 27 BOC 56.38 6.26

94 115 Unigate 56.15 6.24

95 119 Pearson 56.06 6.23

96 105 Scottish Power 56.02 6.22

97 109 Wessex Water 55.99 6.22

98 75 Reckitt & Colman 55.94 6.22

99 123 Severn Trent 55.93 6.21

100 33 Chelsfield 55.89 6.21

METHODOLOGY

Management Today, in conjunction with Nottingham, Derby and Aston Business Schools, asked Britain's 10 largest public companies in 26 sectors to evaluate their peers (in two sectors there were only nine public players).

Participants rated each company in their sector on a scale of one to 10 with one being poor, five being average and 10 being excellent. Performance was rated against nine criteria: quality of management; financial soundness; ability to attract, develop and retain top talent; quality of goods and services; value as a long-term investment; capacity to innovate; quality of marketing; community and environmental responsibility; and use of corporate assets.

Analysts at 10 leading investment companies were also polled. On the basis of the individual scores assigned to each company for each of the nine characteristics, three separate analyses were produced: an overall ranking of all 258; a ranking of the 10 companies in any given sector (nine in two instances); and top league tables in each performance category.

INDEX

3i 49

Abbey National 65

Aegis 57

Airtours 45

Allied Colloids 56

Asda 13

W Baird 42

Bank of Scotland 35

Bass 53

Blue Circle Industries 76

BOC 93

Bodycote International 74

Boots 10

Bowthorpe 62

BP 4

BPB Industries 70

British Aerospace 33

British Land 25

British Telecom 21

BSkyB 79

BTP 72

Bunzl 28

Cable & Wireless 92

Cadbury Schweppes 2

Capital Radio 91

Chelsfield 100

Cobham 80

Colt Telecom 73

Cookson 82

Courtaulds Textiles 36

Croda International 64

Daily Mail & General Trust 12

Debenhams 87

Dewhirst 14

Diageo 17

Dixons 71

Emap 29

Energy Group 90

Euromoney Publications 81

Field 39

Gallaher 67

GEC 50

General Accident 58

GKN 43

Glaxo Wellcome 6

Granada 47

Hammerson 84

Hays 61

HSBC 23

ICI 44

Imperial Tobacco 77

Kingfisher 52

Land Securities 48

Legal & General 20

Lloyds TSB 9

M&G 41

Marks & Spencer 11

Misys 78

W Morrison 59

Next 63

Northern Foods 69

Norwich Union 88

Nycomed Amersham 55

Orange 18

Pearson 95

Perpetual 32

Provident Financial 34

Reckitt & Colman 98

Reed International 38

Rentokil Initial 37

Reuters 22

Rolls-Royce 40

J Sainsbury 27

Schroders 3

Scottish & Newcastle 68

Scottish Power 96

Sema 75

Severn Trent 99

Shell 8

Siebe 19

DS Smith 83

SmithKline Beecham 5

Smiths Industries 16

St Ives 86

Stakis 26

Standard Chartered 85

Sun Life & Provincial 51

Tesco 1

Thomson Travel 89

TI 30

Tomkins 66

Unigate 94

Unilever 7

Vodafone 24

Wassall 54

Wessex Water 97

Whitbread 31

Wolseley 60

WPP 46

Zeneca 15.