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The global retail market generated $26T and is slated to cross the $30T mark by 2024. This was a step against the financial forecasting of a two-year retail slump in most non-essential goods. It led to a growing curiosity about consumer behavior in the retail space.
This article covers the list of top UK retail companies and how they have survived the COVID-19 pandemic.
Net Value : $1.57T
Headquarters: Seattle, Washington, United States
Founders: Andy Josie
CEO: Jeff Bezos
Founded: 5 July 1994
Amazon is the largest eCommerce company in the world. Its primary revenue sources are eCommerce, cloud computing, and digital streaming.
Amazon UK filed its 2021 sales at $31.9B. It has been heading the list of top UK retail companies for over half a decade. It is part of a small group of companies that saw an uptick in its projected revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monthly unique visitors: 93,336,684
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $5B-$10B
Net Value: £1.1B
Founded : 3 June 2000, London, United Kingdom
Founders: Nick Robertson, Andrew Reagan, Quentin Griffiths
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Short for As Seen On Screen, ASOS is one of the most successful online fashion stores globally.
ASOS grew substantially during the COVID-19 lockdown to post revenue of £3B. ASOS has made its name among the top UK retail companies with its growing brand image.
Monthly unique visitors: 5,741,080
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $5B-$10B
Headquarters: Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Founder: Richard Tompkins
Founded: 13 November 1972
Parent organization: Sainsbury's
Global Net sales: $6.2B
Argos is an eCommerce store that primarily functions in the United Kingdom. They serve a wide variety of segments from Electronics, DIY, Furniture, and Toys.
Argos also ranked 2nd in 2021, only behind Amazon in the Toys, Hobby & DIY section in the UK market. This is one of the many reasons it is projected to be one of the best UK retail companies in 2022.
Monthly unique visitors: 5,741,080
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $5B-$10B
CEO: Steve Hewitt
Headquarters location: Solihull, United Kingdom
Founders: Ben Francis, Lewis Morgan
Valuation : $1.3B - $1.45B
Gymshark is a fitness apparel brand. It manufactures and retails apparel aimed at the fitness sector. It is one of the leading fitness apparel brands and rapidly grew by over 200 percent before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the year 2020-21, it generated $324.92M in sales. These figures are precisely why it will emerge as one of the largest UK retail brands in 2022.
Monthly unique visitors: 1,740,846
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $500M-$1B
Headquarters: Welwyn Garden City, United Kingdom
CEO: Ken Murphy
Founder: Jack Cohen
Founded: 1919, East End of London
Valuation: $10.7B
Tesco is a multinational company dealing with retailing groceries and appliances through online and brick shops. Its primary revenue is generated in the UK and the US.
The brand is the largest grocery retailer in the UK. Tesco posted total revenue of £53B in 2021.
Monthly unique visitors: 1,795,371
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $1B-$5B
Founded: 1884
Founders: Michael Marks, Thomas Spencer
Headquarters: London, England, UK
CEO: Steve Rowe
Marks and Spencer is one of the leading retail and groceries stores in the UK. The group generated over £779M in 2021, mostly from over 1000 brick and mortar stores. 472 of these shops are based outside the UK.
With over 600 stores in the UK, Marks and Spencer is still one of the biggest UK retail brands of 2022.
Monthly unique visitors: 2,030,159
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $1B-$5B
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
CEO: Simon Roberts
Founders: John James Sainsbury
Founded: 1869, Holborn
Sainsbury's is a retail supermarket chain best known for its brick stores. It is one of the biggest grocery retailers in the UK.
The company has reported a gross profit of £371M for the 2021-2022 term. The company has also acquired other retail giants, such as Argos (in 2016).
With a healthy growth even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sainsbury's had gross revenue of £28.6B in 2020-21.
Monthly unique visitors: 401,034
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $1B-$5B
Founders: John Lewis
Founded: 1864
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
CEO: Sharon White
John Lewis and Partners are a leading retail chain in the UK. They deal in online and offline retail. They have also recently ventured into the service sector, trading in personal finance and insurance.
JLP generated revenue of £3.7B in 2021. 75% of the company's sales have come from online sales in 2021, showing a seamless transition into the online marketplace during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Monthly unique visitors: 2,411,439
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $1B-$5B
Founders: Thomas Burberry
Founded: 1856, Basingstoke, United Kingdom
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
CEO: Jonathan Ackroyd
Burberry is a luxury design house dealing with manufacturing and selling high-end fashion apparel. The company was recently valued at €3.9B and posted revenue of £2.3B in 2021.
Surprisingly, Burberry made most of its revenue from sales in the Asia-pacific region compared to the UK in 2021.
Monthly unique visitors: 374,116
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $1B-$5B
Headquarters: Acton, London, United Kingdom
Founder: Henry Curry
Founded: 1884, Leicester, United Kingdom
Owner: Currys Plc
Currys is an electronics retailer mainly based out of the UK and Ireland. The company generated global revenue of $5B in the year 2021.
Currys Plc is the second-largest electronics retailer (15-20% market share) in the UK, behind only Amazon in market share.
Monthly unique visitors: 1,886,922
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $1B-$5B
CEO: Niraj Shah
Founded: August 2002, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Founders : Founders: Niraj Shah, Steve Conine
Wayfair is a US-based company that sells furniture and home accessories/appliances. The company has emerged as one of the most significant direct-to-consumer retailers in the UK.
The brand boasted a net revenue of $13.7B though showing a lower gain than the previous year.
Monthly unique visitors: 7,163,301
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $5B-$10B
CEO: Peter Cowgill
Revenue: £6.1B (2021)
Headquarters: Bury, United Kingdom
Founded: 1981, Bury, United Kingdom
J.D. Sports is a sports-fashion retailer based out of the UK. The brand is one of the biggest sports and leisurewear retailers in the UK.
The brand generated revenue of £6.1B in 2021. About 40% of the revenue came from the UK market, while the rest came from global sales.
Headquarters: Bracknell, United Kingdom
Revenue: £7.04B (2021)
Founded: 1904, Acton, London, United Kingdom
Parent organizations: John Lewis & Partners, John Lewis Partnership
Founders: Wallace Waite, David Taylor, Arthur Rose
Waitrose is a groceries supermarket chain in the UK. The John Lewis and Partners group owns it. Waitrose makes sales primarily through their convenience stores and brick stores in the UK.
The company posted revenue of £7.04B in the year 2021. It is slated to become the 8th largest grocery supermarket in the UK as of 2021.
Monthly unique visitors: 289,673
Order Volume: >50,000
Web Sales: $500M-$1B
Once we overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, a major change is likely to be noticed in customer behavior in the future. Consumers may now prefer accessing brick-and-mortar establishments again, owing to the restrictions imposed in the last two years.
The following year may again see a significant change in retail commerce as the world opens up again.
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