Despite holding just 1.1 per cent of the market
Per the 2017 release by ONS, titled Annual Business Survey: UK non-financial business economy foreign-owned businesses, in 2015, there were just over 2m registered non-financial businesses in the UK, of which 1.1 per cent (24,141) were owned by businesses outside of the UK (foreign-owned.)
Turnerlittle.com, in their analysis of the report, decided to consider what percentage of the UK’s 10 biggest non-financial industries are foreign-owned, in comparison to UK-owned business.
Most notably, the manufacturing industry holds the highest number of foreign-owned business, at 2.9 per cent (3,704.) Closely followed by the wholesale and retail trade (1.8 per cent; 6,192) and the information and communication sector (1.5 per cent; 2,848.)
However, despite such small proportions, collectively, non-financial foreign-owned industries contributed a vast £326.5bn in approximate gross value added (aGVA) in 2015, a contribution of 28.5 per cent to total aGVA in the UK. A phenomenal feat.
Source: Turnerlittle.com
(N.B. ‘aGVA’ is a productivity measure that tallies up the net value of goods and services produced.)
In fact, since 2008 aGVA for foreign-owned businesses increased by 32.1 per cent from £247.1bn, compared with an increase from UK-owned businesses of 23.9 per cent. The largest contribution came from the non-financial services sector where the level of aGVA for foreign-owned businesses increased by 67.4 per cent over the period.
Unsurprisingly, the region with the largest proportion of foreign-owned businesses in 2015 was London, at 19.6 per cent – contributing the highest proportion of foreign-owned aGVA, with 25.6 per cent of the total.
The greatest contributor to foreign-owned businesses’ aGVA was Europe with 49.5 per cent of the total and since 2008, aGVA from European-owned businesses increased by 42 per cent compared with a rise of 12.8 per cent from the next highest contributor, the Americas: businesses owned in Asia experienced growth of 93.6 per cent over the same period.
James Turner, managing director of TurnerLittle.com, said: “As we face the post-Brexit free fall it is important to remember that, though foreign-owned business is performing exceptionally well in the UK; so too is British-owned business.
The sheer number of UK companies in comparison to foreign-owned companies proves we have the potential to harness power and production right here in the UK, to at the very least compete and safeguard our future – should we meet with dissipation.”
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