Arnold keeps it in the Clark family 19 | 08 | 2011

SCOTTISH CAR GROUP Arnold Clark has become the UK's fifth-largest family-owned business, according to an annual league table.

Sales at Arnold Clark, which retains its headquarters in Glasgow, increased from £2.2 billion to £2.3bn; and the 10 largest family firms in the UK grew their combined turnover by 10.2% to £35.5bn.

News of the rise came as the dealership, which was founded by chairman and chief executive Sir Arnold Clark in 1954, yesterday announced the opening of Toyota showrooms in East Kilbride and Glasgow. The firm said it is now the largest Toyota dealer in Scotland, with eight sites.

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Compiled by the Institute for Family Business (IFB), the league table showed that Associated British (AB) Foods retained its place as the UK's largest family-owned company, with revenues up to £10.2bn from £9.3bn.

The firm — which makes Kingsmill bread and Twinnings tea, as well as owning discount clothes chain Primark — is listed in London, but the stake held by the founding Weston family means the IFB still classes the company as a family concern.

"The UK has seen difficult trading conditions in the past year, but there have been some remarkable success stories among the UK's top family businesses," Grant Gordon, director general of the IFB, said. "With family firms contributing almost one-third of our GDP, the sector is becoming increasingly important."

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Jim McGill