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.
