Largest companies in the UK based on revenue by number of global employees 2025
Compass Group had by far the highest number of global employees among companies based in the United Kingdom as of 2025, at approximately 500,000 employees. Tesco had the second-highest number of employees at around 336,400, followed by HSBC Holdings which had 211,000 employees. In the same year, HSBC Holdings had an annual revenue of 142.3 billion U.S. dollars, the third-highest among UK-based companies. The oil and gas giant Shell had the highest annual revenue at over 283 billion dollars, ahead of BP at 189 billion dollars.
How many businesses are there in the UK?
In 2024, there were approximately 5.5 million business enterprises in the UK, down from a peak of 5.98 million in 2020. Although there were just 1,930 large firms that employed 1,000 people or more, these firms employed more than a quarter of the UK's private sector workforce, and made a combined turnover of approximately 1.69 trillion British pounds. As of this year, the construction industry had the highest number of enterprises by sector, at over 870,000. The sector with the most workers was that of wholesale and retail, which collectively employed just under 4.9 million people in 2024, and also had the highest turnover compared to other sectors, at over 1.8 trillion pounds.
Current UK economic climate
Although the UK economy is expected to grow in 2025, growth has been downgraded from earlier forecasts, while inflation and unemployment are expected to be higher than initially thought. According to the business confidence index, sentiment among businesses at the end of 2024 was lower than it has been since early 2021. Furthermore, since the start of 2025, businesses have been shedding jobs at an accelerating rate, possibly due to recent tax rises, which was seen as the main external concern of businesses in early 2025. The precarious state of the UK's government finances, and potential tax rises in the next budget, are also likely feeding into this pessimistic mood.
