FOREWORDS

East Midlands Chamber

hen we began the East Midlands Top 500 Companies back in early 2020, it created a mechanism to gauge the health of the region’s economy in a relatively stable trading environment.

innovation and creativity, which has never shone brighter than throughout this deeply troubling period to minimise the negative effects.

Scott Knowles Chief Executive, East Midlands Chamber

Since then, our businesses have faced a series of challenges at a scale never previously experienced, from forced closures due to Covid-19 lockdowns through to a stop-start economy and a cost-of-doing-business crisis that drags on today.

This fourth edition of the EM Top 500 reflects the impact of the pandemic and provides a clear picture of its lingering effects on our economy.

But it also demonstrates something we’ve always known – the East Midlands business community has tremendous resilience,

De Montfort University

am pleased to introduce the fourth report on The East Midlands Top 500 Companies (EM Top 500) on behalf of De Montfort University. The EM Top 500 was launched in 2020 and celebrates the success of the East Midlands as a vibrant business region with continuing diversity and innovation.

While the furlough scheme helped many, the fact that the EM Top 500 workforce declined by 7.5% with a 9.3% drop in overall turnover also indicates our firms’ determination to support their people and carry on as normally as possible.

Despite the sustained challenges, we are now in a period of recovery in which businesses seek new domestic and international growth opportunities. Together, we are putting the East Midlands on the map as a Centre of Trading Excellence – a place for making things, moving them and innovating in how we do this – and in the coming years the EM Top 500’s findings will undoubtedly illustrate the fruits of their labour.

Professor Heather McLaughlin Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law

De Montfort University is proud to work with the region’s businesses, providing advice and support as well as educating future generations of business and community leaders.

The Top 500 team brings together leading researchers from the Business Schools at De Montfort, Derby and Nottingham Trent Universities. We greatly appreciate all their contributions, together with the business leadership from East Midlands Chamber, the excellent event and online coverage through ‘Business Live’ from Reach plc, and this report which is featured in ‘Real Entrepreneurs’ magazine.