UK Largest Family Run Businesses

This report presents the results of an investigation into the largest UK registered businesses, as measured by turnover greater than £500m (BEIS, 2012) to identify the proportion of family-owned firms. In this study, not only are the largest family businesses identified, but their ultimate owning entities or parent companies are distinguished from wholly-owned subsidiaries.

This research highlights the nuances and issues surrounding definitions of family business, which may be too restrictive and not capture the entire spread of family-owned firms. Further discussion around what constitutes family involvement in the standard definitions for family businesses, may provide a greater understanding of the family business sector. In addition, methodological approaches to the classification of family businesses using surnames may underestimate the actual numbers of family firms since not all relatives have the same surname and family units exist without marriage.