Mid-sized businesses
This series brings together all documents relating to Mid-sized businesses
As part of the Government’s Growth Review, BIS has been looking at the contribution to the economy of the population of firms that have grown beyond the size of smaller firms, but have not yet reached the size of the largest firms. These are referred to as Mid-sized Businesses (MSBs).
The Mid-sized Businesses Growth Review uses a definition based on turnover, £25m-£500m per year. £25m is the upper bound of the SME turnover definition, whilst £500m was chosen as a cut-off point for these ‘smaller’ large firms. Note however, that the Companies’ Act SME definition requires that two out of three characteristics are met – turnover (less than £25m), employees (less than 250), and gross assets (less than £12.5m). Therefore there is likely to be some overlap with SMEs in the MSB population that we are looking at in this analysis. BIS estimates that over half of MSBs also have fewer than 250 employees.
As part of the MSB Growth Review and other related studies, BIS has been developing new analysis and evidence on MSBs. BIS has carried out in-house analyses and also commissioned new research from a number of organisations. Links to data and reports from the following studies are included:
- BIS analysis of data from the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Inter-departmental Business Register (IDBR).
- Aston University analysis of the ONS’ Business Structure Database – BSD and the results of new analysis linking the BSD to the FAME database.
- structured interviews with MSBs, carried out by Middlesex University, providing case studies/ qualitative evidence.
- new ONS analysis of ONS Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) data from the Annual Business Survey (ABS).
- a study and survey of management capability by the Centre for Economics Performance (CEP).
- a study to provide international comparisons of MSB performance, carried out by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR).
Note: The release date for the majority of the Tables and Reports is Tuesday 29th November 2011. As noted in each excel sheet, Tables in the links may include data released earlier on Wednesday 23rd November.