Scots family businesses generate £1 billion in profit last year

Scotland’s 100 most profitable family-owned businesses generated a combined £1 billion of pre-tax profits last year, The Herald reports.

The first annual Scottish Family Business Top 100 report, published by Family Business United (Scotland), shows that the top 100 businesses turned over £16.6 billion last year.

The study is based on information filed by Scottish-registered firms at Companies House and analysed by family business adviser Craig Corporate and Queen Margaret University.

Scotland’s most profitable family firm was William Grant & Sons, which is owned by the Grant Gordon family and made a pre-tax profit of £177.2 million in the last financial year, turning over £882.5 million and employing over 1,900 people.

The second most profitable was motor retailer Arnold Clark, which had the highest turnover of over £3.4 billion and a pre-tax profit of £110.4 million, and employs nearly 10,000 people.

City Facilities Management, owned by Lord Willie Haughey, had the highest headcount with 12,047 employees, pre-tax profits of £13.5 million and turnover of £463.1 million.

Tom Craig, chairman of Craig Corporate and chair of Family Business United Scotland, said: “There is a kind of mind-set that says family businesses are little companies, but the reality is that they are very substantial.

“That Top 100 make something like £1 billion of profits – that is a huge thing. That was really the motivation – to try to get better recognition and understanding of the contribution they make.”

He added: “Once they get established, they tend to last for quite a long time. If you look down that list, most of these companies have been around for several generations. That is a great thing to have, particularly for an economy like Scotland which is dependent on inward investment.

“Multi-nationals can make decisions to close businesses in Scotland in a way family companies wouldn’t. They are much more patient about their capital returns. They also make huge contributions to their local communities – a lot of family businesses have been in a particular area for upwards of 100 years. That is in the wider sense of family businesses, as opposed to just the biggest ones.

“My personal view is that if we have more family companies it will be good for the long-term growth of the Scottish economy, because of the stability and the patient nature of growth.”