York Top 100 Businesses annual report event with Tony Underwood

And the event showcasing our top firms reaches new heights with a guest speaker, who began his career as an England rugby union international before forging a new living as a commercial airline pilot.

The Press's latest edition of the York Top 100 Business Report, will be published in the paper, as well as online.

The annual report is produced by The Press, York St John University's Business School and Make it York to showcase a definitive and comprehensive list of York's most significant employers.

The Top 100, which first compiled in 2017, was collated using an algorithm devised by York Business School, taking into account key performance factors such as turnover, profit, growth, and staff numbers.

City Cruises are the headline sponsor this year. Inset is commercial and marketing manager Chris Pegg (Image: Pic supplied)

A special event will be held in the city on Thursday, May 25, with York’s top 100 businesses receiving special invites to attend. The event is ticket only and tickets are not on sale.

'Great stories for a great city' - York top 100 businesses revealed

The Guest Speaker is former England rugby international Tony Underwood, who played as a wing three-quarter back.

Tony was born in Ipoh, Malaysia in 1969, and his brother is fellow English rugby player Rory Underwood.

He was educated at Barnard Castle School and Leicester University, before playing for the Leicester Tigers, the Newcastle Falcons, England and the British and Irish Lions.

Married with two children, after his rugby career Tony then retrained as a commercial pilot, starting with EasyJet then Virgin Atlantic and later Emirates.

Host of the event next week, will be Steve Lowe, sales director at LOCALiQ.

He said: “We are looking forward to revealing the Top 100 businesses an our annual report produced by the Press, York St John University and Make It York to showcase the definitive and most comprehensive list of York’s most significant businesses.  

“The Top 100 uses a special algorithm created by York St John’s Business School, taking into account a number of key performance indicators including turnover, profit, growth and staff numbers.

York St John University (Image: Pic supplied)

“The event will be attended by invite only and we are looking forward to publishing the report and meeting those topping the list at the end of May, thank you to City Cruises for being the headline sponsor of this year’s report.”

Last year’s event at York St John University was the first Top 100 held in person since the start of the pandemic.

It saw LNER steam into the number one place, up from fourth place last year, having boosted its annual turnover to more than £838 million, up from £680 million in 2020.

The top five was rounded out by Shepherd Building Group, family shoe firm Pavers, online music retailer Gear4Music and asset management company Providence Holdings Ltd.