Welcome to this year’s Power Players, our annual guide to the largest kitchen houses in the UK by turnover.
This year’s top 10 are responsible for £236.70m of catering equipment sales, project delivery and service work, underscoring their scale and reach in the market.
That figure represents a £65m increase on the previous year and shows how emphatically the market’s largest heavyweights have managed to find ways of expanding their businesses at a time when the economic story hasn’t always been favourable to put it mildly.
As we have stated in previous years, the aim of compiling a list like this is to provide a snapshot of market performance and structure using publicly available financial data from the largest players in the sector by turnover.
Ranking the companies in order of revenue is a practical way of doing this, but as we have always gone to great lengths to point out, it is by no means the solitary indicator or benchmark of progress and success.
We deliberately refrain from drawing like-for-like comparisons between companies, simply because the accounting periods and dates that each organisation files their reports with Companies House differs.
To ensure transparency and consistency we use the most recent set of accounts that were publically available at the time of publication (24 May 2024).
Eagle-eyed readers will, however, spot some differences from the list that originally appeared in the April 2024 print edition of Catering Insight.
This is because that list was published prior to the news that Shine Food Machinery (at that point ninth on the list with a turnover of £12.88m for the year ending 31 December 2022) had ceased trading.
We have therefore taken the decision to update the list ahead of publishing it online, which also allowed us to update the figures of a couple of distributors that had filed a more updated set of accounts since the print edition went to press.
Of course, it goes without saying that any financial figures referenced are historic and in some cases refer to a period which ended up to 18 months ago.
In order to obtain a more up-to-date and rounded picture of affairs, we have separately invited each company to comment on market trends and strategic developments, even if they aren’t able to divulge specific audited numbers.
Not only does this help to close the information gap on what has been happening since the end of the last publicly available reporting period and today, it provides a valuable insight to the current opportunities and challenges that these businesses face.
The catering equipment distributor market has had to contend with some remarkable challenges in the past few years, forcing many players to adapt the way they do business, adopt different strategies and target new market sectors.
But if the accounts of this year’s top 10 are anything to go by then it is clear that the catering equipment sector’s largest project houses continue to show an impressive level of endeavour, invention and acumen.
A list like this does take considerable time to compile and we go to great lengths to ensure its accuracy.
We can only include companies whose accounts are in the public domain and the list is only focused on traditional catering equipment distributors that primarily generate their revenue from kitchen design, projects, installation and resale.
Online-focused dealers and service-only companies are addressed separately within the report, but are not considered when compiling the list.
However, if you feel we have overlooked anyone then please get in touch and we will be delighted to take them into account for next year. In the meantime, we hope you find the analysis and insight useful.
Click on the profiles below to learn about each of the top 10:
3. Sprint Refrigeration & Catering Equipment
6. Stephens Catering Equipment
The 2024 Power Players series is sponsored by Panasonic Professional Kitchen, a world-leading manufacturer of professional microwave ovens and rapid cook technology. Click HERE for an exclusive interview with European director Jared Greenhalgh about the company’s UK strategy and dealer plans. For more information about Panasonic Professional Kitchen visit www.panasonic.co.uk/pro-cooking
