Published on August 27th, 2020 | by Bibhuranjan

How to Research UK companies on your Phone

The United Kingdom is a combination of 4 European Nations namely; England, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. While there are organizations native to specific nations, this article piece does not address them.

The world at large is becoming a global village with the advent of technology, and mobile phones play a big part of it. With over 3 billion active smartphones and their current and constant use for research in various spheres of life such as agriculture, health, human sciences, and even the global market, it is not far-fetched that they could be applied for company research purposes.

Research can be basically defined as the acquiring, arrangement, study, and analysis of information with regards to a particular issue, to determine facts, and arrive at conclusions. The main aim of research is to prove a theory, contribute to an existing field, or learn something new. Research is important for several reasons, some of which are:

It is a medium for people to add to existing knowledge and ensure learning.
It is a great tool in ensuring the success of a business venture.
It helps others be enlightened about several matters and makes people more aware of things in their surroundings and how it affects them directly
It is also a good way to prove points, make, and settle arguments.

There are several firms in the United Kingdom, so to try researching them all together would be a strenuous activity. There are several categories in which organizations can be divided, be it business type, business sector, size, revenue, or even age of the organization. These categories serve as filters to ensure that you are able to conduct research on the firms you want to. The categories are itemized below:

Business Type

Public organizations – for these types of firms, the general public is allowed the liberty to purchase shares and subsequently, earn a portion of ownership.
Private organizations – ownership of this kind of firm is not available to the general public. The shares of this kind of company is reserved for the sole entrepreneur or a group of partners who share common goals.

These two are the types of companies in the United Kingdom today, with the majority of firms being private organizations; but there are forms of establishments that happen to be categorized underneath them, some of which are:

Community Interest companies – these are poised at developing the environment, and impacting the lives of several people around them, rather than just realizing profits. They are known as socially responsible establishments.
Limited and Unlimited Liability – in limited liability, the shareholders are held to a particular percentage of payment in a case where the organization runs to the ground or liquidates, while for unlimited liability, payment to settle outstanding debts in case of bankruptcy is made based on the investors discretion.
Guarantee limited – usually occurs in small setups, instead of shareholders, a board and management, the guarantors are solely responsible for the financial pressure of the firm as well as being tasked with the extra duty of running its day to day operations.
Micro Businesses – these are firms which have less than 10 workers at the helm of operations. They are sometimes startups from original ideas, or subsidiaries from bigger public or private organizations. Since 2007, there have been over 400,000 of its kind started around the group of nations, with over one-fourth of that number still in existence to this day.

Generally, private companies are a lot harder to research than public firms, since public organizations are mandated to release quarterly and annual releases about company dealings, ensuring for more information to be gotten, while private companies are not required to make releases.

Another branch in which United Kingdom Companies can be classified into is based off the sector of the economy they deal in.

The most popular segments in the United Kingdom at the present are the science, technology, and professional business sectors, with almost 500,000 different companies falling under this category. The most successful firms in this category are the Unilever Group with a market cap of almost 200 billion pounds, AstraZeneca, a bio-pharmaceutical establishment with a market value of almost 115 billion pounds, and Royal Dutch shell, a petrochemical organization with market cap value of almost 100 billion pounds.

The second most popular sector is the construction department, with over 300,000 companies invested in this business, the most successful in 2019 being Balfour Beatty, generating about 8 billion pounds in turnover, and a market cap value of 1 billion.

The least popular business sectors in the United Kingdom are the Public defense administration, which has just over 13,000 establishments, and the mining & utilities sector, with only 7000 setups available across all four nations.

The final category to be addressed in this write up is for companies that are invested in the production of the United Kingdom’s major export commodities.

The firms which produce United Kingdom’s major export, which is Machinery and transport equipment are led by Welbilt UK, who generated earnings in the region of 4 billion in 2019 and have a market cap value of 1.1 billion pounds.

Chemicals are United Kingdom’s second largest export produce, followed by miscellaneous manufactures and Fuels. These three export products combined generated a total 149.1 billion pounds in 2019, which is 7 billion more than Machinery and transport equipment generated.

Conclusion

Research is a very vital element in almost every sector of life, which is why technology has tried to make the process easier and seamless. Having to visit city archives to fully conduct research is a trip many do not want to embark on, which is why there are websites like reportingaccounts.com, and mobile applications on Android and iOS devices like reporting accounts and “Company name search UK’ who pull digitized versions of the kinds of companies. All one needs to is select through the filters; company type, size, sector, etc., and the companies that match the required criteria will be provided, along with extensive information on them.

Tags: accounts firm, UK, UK companies

About the Author

Bibhuranjan Editorial Officer, technofaq.org I'm an avid tech enthusiast at heart. I like to mug up on new and exciting developments on science and tech and have a deep love for PC gaming. Other hobbies include writing blog posts, music and DIY projects.