By Business & Finance 
Business & Finance has released the annual Top 100 Index, recognising the leading companies operating in Ireland in 2022.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
The full list is available to download here
PM Group
PM Group is an employee owned, international project delivery company operating across Europe, the UK, USA and Asia. With a 49 year track record, the company oversees the delivery of services in project management, process design, facility design and construction management for leading multinational companies. PM Group is a leader in the pharmaceutical, food, mission critical, medtech and advanced manufacturing sectors.
Portwest
Portwest, a family business, founded in 1904. Today it is one of the fastest growing protective wear companies in the world. Headquartered in Westport, Co. Mayo, with over 4,000 staff worldwide. It has sales teams in 130 countries, six factories and eight warehouses to service an ever growing global customer base. Portwest were named Exporter of the Year at the Export Industry Awards 2018.
Primark
Primark is an international clothing retailer employing more than 70,000 colleagues across 14 countries in Europe and the US. Founded in Ireland in 1969 under the Penneys brand, Primark aims to provide affordable choices for everyone, from great quality everyday essentials to stand-out style across women’s, men’s and kid’s, as well as beauty, homeware and accessories. With a focus on creating great retail experiences in-store, Primark continues to expand across new and existing markets with the aim of reaching 530 stores by the end of 2026, including upcoming new markets of Romania and Slovakia. Primark is working to make more sustainable fashion affordable for everyone. Primark Cares is its commitment to doing better, every day – making more sustainable products everyone can afford, reducing its impact on the planet and improving the lives of workers. It has made a series of public commitments it plans to work towards and report on progress each year. These include making all its clothes from recycled or more sustainably sourced materials, ensuring clothing is recyclable by design, halving carbon emissions across the value chain and pursuing a living wage for workers in the supply chain. You can find out about these commitments, and much more, here.
Ryanair
Perhaps Ireland’s best-known company, the low-cost airline is the number one International airline, carrying 153 million customers annually and operating over 2,400 flights every day across 2,100 routes. Ryanair flies out of 239 airports in 40 countries. Over the last year Ryanair took a 75% stake in Austrian airline Laudamotion, which opened bases in Austria and Germany, flying Airbus aircraft. Ryanair Sun continued to grow, with five aircraft operating charter flights from Poland to the Mediterranean.
Sisk
John Sisk & Son is an innovative, international, construction and engineering business with long term vision and over 160 years in operation. Sisk employs approx. 1,900 people with extensive operations across Ireland, the United Kingdom and mainland Europe and is recognised by global clients as world leaders in safe delivery. Sisk delivers a full life-cycle approach to construction from planning and offsite construction, through delivery and fit-out with technology as a key enabler, and then managing and maintaining buildings efficiently throughout their lifespan.
Smurfit Kappa Group
A world leader in paper-based packaging with revenue of approximately €10.1 billion, Smurfit Kappa employs over 48,000 people globally, across 36 countries, and owns multiple recycling and manufacturing operations. Jefferson Smurfit Group became Smurfit Kappa after the 2005 merger with Kappa Packaging. Group CEO Tony Smurfit oversees global operations and in most recent results, for the year ending 2021, Smurfit Kappa Group delivered EBITDA of €1,702 million, and an EBITDA margin of 16.8%,, demonstrating once again the strength and resilience of the Group.
Smyths Toys
The company is run by four brothers, Tony, Padraig, Liam and Thomas Smyth. The company was founded in Claremorris, County Mayo on 23 December 1986.Expansion to central Europe – On 24 April 2018, Smyths Toys acquired Toys “R” Us stores in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. In 2019, all the stores in those countries were re-branded as such to Smyths Toys. In total, Smyths Toys operates over 200 stores: 21 stores in Ireland, 119 in the United Kingdom, 92 in central Europe and 41 in France. Smyths Toys UK Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of the company.
SoftCo
SoftCo deliver powerful, innovative financial process automation solutions that increase productivity, reduce costs, and ensure organizations meet compliance obligations. SoftCo’s technology automates Procure-to-Pay, Accounts Payable, Vendor Management, eBilling and Contract Management processes. Our solutions are built on a common platform, SoftCo10, ensuring that as our customers expand they can seamlessly grow on the SoftCo ecosystem. SoftCo are a global organization with 2 million business users worldwide across all industry sectors. Our DNA is Procure-to-Pay. We build our smart technology with this domain knowledge delivering fast, straight through and touchless processing. Our ethos is to understand our customers’ businesses, the challenges they face, and deliver solutions to meet and go beyond their expectations. We are ISO 27001 and SÄHKE2 certified, a Microsoft Gold Partner and an AWS Advanced Technology Partner.
SSE Airtricity
The wind farm developer, founded over 20 years ago and now employing 750, is Ireland’s market-leading supplier of renewable energy. Its operations span 26 wind farms (including Ireland’s largest – Galway Wind Park), and a number of Power Purchase Agreements with third party wind and solar operators. Since 2008, The company has invested €2.5 billion in low-carbon energy infrastructure in Ireland.
Stafford Group
Helmed by Group CEO, Mark Stafford, the family-run firm has existed since 1891 with activities ranging from sports retail, fuel, and shipping. Its chief subsidiary, Life Style Sports, boasts sales in excess of €100 million. In 2016, the retailer opened a 6,000 square feet flagship store on Dublin’s Grafton Street. In recent years, Mark Stafford, who took the reins in 2004, is said to harbour ambitions to expand Life Styles Sports’ reach into Europe.
Supermac’s
Supermac’s is an Irish fast food restaurant chain first opened on Main Street, Ballinasloe, Co. Galway in 1978. Since that first opening, Supermac’s restaurants have become a firm fixture in towns and cities around Ireland and now have over 110 outlets nationwide. Today Supermac’s is the largest indigenous fast food restaurant group with a policy of continued expansion and growth. The success of the company can be attributed to a number of factors: a unique and innovative menu, a commitment to quality across all aspects of the business, a commitment to buying from local Irish suppliers and a strong work ethic.
Sysco Ireland
Sysco is the largest food business on the island of Ireland. What was started by the Geary family has now grown to a team of over 1,300 people delivering food solutions to thousands of customers every night. Our customers rely on us to help them grow their businesses with a range of over 10,000 fresh, frozen and ambient food products and non-food products. Operating from a central Dublin location and seven regional centres, we guarantee next-day island-wide delivery; we are the only food business in the country capable of delivering on our customers’ expectations regardless of how remote your business location is.
Tedcastle/Top Oil
The history of Top Oil and Tedcastle McCormick has been synonymous with trade and progress for a period spanning over two centuries. The original company was founded in 1800 by Robert Tedcastle to import and distribute coal in the city of Dublin. Progress Today the Tedcastle Group of companies include: Top – one of Ireland’s leading fuel importers and distributors, Top Kelly Fuels – a leading oil and coal importer and distributor in Northern Ireland, Bruce Lindsay – one of the UK’s leading importers and distributors of coal, Tedcastle Aviation Fuels (TAF) – the “into-plane” fuelling operator at Shannon Airport and Tedcastle Properties, who look after group property interests in Ireland and the UK.
The Heatons Group
The Heatons Group is Ireland’s largest department store group employing over 2,000 people across Ireland. The company has three brands; Heatons Department stores (54 stores across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), SportsWorld (28 stores in the Republic of Ireland) and Sports Direct (15 stores in Northern Ireland). Heatons has been named as one of Ireland’s ‘Best Managed’ companies in the ‘Deloitte Best Managed Companies Awards Programme’.
Transfermate
Transfermate – a subsidiary of CluneTech – was founded in 2010. At that time, founder Terry Clune and CEO Sinead Fitzmaurice saw a need in the market for an easy, simple and cost-effective way to transfer money internationally. As experts in global tax recovery and global payroll, they understood the delays, costs and administrative challenges facing companies when making cross-border payments. TransferMate immediately began working with regulators around the world to secure licenses to operate as a global payments provider in key jurisdictions and began developing lasting partnerships with banks, fintechs and software providers.
UDG Healthcare
UDG Healthcare provides expert outsourced healthcare services specialising in advisory, communications, commercial, clinical and packaging for the pharmaceutical sector via two divisions; Ashfield and Sharp. UDG Healthcare plc has experienced phenomenal growth over the last eight years. During this period, the Group has evolved from being primarily an Irish and UK-based supply chain business for pharmaceutical companies, to a global leader in advisory, communications, commercial and clinical and packaging services for healthcare across two divisions; Ashfield (70% of Group profits) and Sharp (30% of Group profits). The Group’s strategy has been to shift from a low growth, low margin supply chain business, into higher growth and higher margin outsourcing services for pharmaceutical companies. Executing this strategy has seen the Group make 21 acquisitions and four disposals since 2012. Over the past 5 years, Ashfield has generated a 14% operating profit CAGR while Sharp has generated a 15% operating profit CAGR. In 2018, the Group completed the final step in its strategic shift from a distributor for the pharmaceutical industry, to a service provider.
Uniphar
Uniphar Group is an international diversified healthcare services business servicing the requirements of more than 200 multinational pharmaceutical and medical technology manufacturers globally. Headquartered in Citywest in Dublin, the Group is active in Ireland, the UK, Europe, the US, and Asia- Pacific. The Company's vision is to improve patient access to pharmaco-medical products and treatments by enhancing connectivity between manufacturers and healthcare stakeholders. Uniphar was originally established in 1967 to ensure a reliable supply of medicines by pharmacies for their patients and to this day, remains focused on improving patient access to pharmaco-medical products. The company has grown strongly both organically and through merger and acquisition and in 2013, Uniphar’s acquisition of Cahill May Roberts moved it number two position in the Irish pharmaceutical wholesale and distribution market. Since then, the company has expanded significantly, taking poll position in the Irish market and transforming into a high-growth diversified international healthcare services company. Uniphar floated on the stock market in July 2019, raising €135m. In 2021, it reported a 7% increase in revenues to €1.94 billion. Profit before tax increased by 32% to €50.4m leaving it firmly on track to achieve its stated strategic objective of doubling 2018 proforma EBITDA within five years of IPO. Last year, the group announced five strategic acquisitions, which allowed it to enter the German market and expand its service offering into the MENA region. The company recently announced the acquisitions of Orspec Pharma, which marks its entry into Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and Boston-based Inspired Health, which further increases its presence in the strategically important US market complementing it’s 3 previous US acquisitions. Back home, Uniphar recently acquired the McCauley Pharmacy Group, subject to CPCC approval, a leading provider of pharmacy and retail services in Ireland. These developments each represent further important steps towards Uniphar’s goal of becoming a global leader in the healthcare services sector.
Valeo Foods
Valeo Foods Group is a leading international food business that has built three significant growth platforms; the UK, Europe, and Ireland, each with its own diverse portfolio of leading food brands. Our brands, which include the iconic Rowse honey, Kettle crisps and Jacob’s biscuits, have histories that stretch back over 150 years. This heritage and their strong appeal to consumers is what makes them stand out as category leaders.
Viatel
Viatel Technology Group is Ireland’s leading independent digital services group. Viatel connects companies to their competitive advantage with best-in-class business comms, cloud and digital transformations services. A Deloitte Best Managed Company, Viatel employs almost 300 experienced staff to deliver exemplary service to 5,000 enterprise customers. A proud Guaranteed Irish member, Viatel has global capabilities including an international network and transatlantic data centre facilities.
Wisetek
Businesses today are increasingly more aware of the need to enhance their processes regarding the disposition of IT assets, comply with new data protection regulations, adhere to e-waste management best practices and embrace a more circular economy model for sustainable IT re-use. Wisetek is one of the few vendors worldwide that can uniquely offer customers a complete one stop solution to meet all these requirements. Founded on the principle of lean manufacturing, Wisetek’s culture of flexibility and operational quality, combined with a full lifecycle solution, manufacturing assembly, forward, and reverse logistics, e-waste recycling and IT asset disposition services is what distinguishes us in the market. Our global network of certified processing facilities delivers worldwide excellence, security, compliance and competitiveness for our customers and reinforces our commitment to offering a global end to end service. To enhance the use of a circular economy model, Wisetek has created its own Ecommerce store www.wisetekstore.com to ensure that everyone has access to quality IT product at an affordable price, whilst giving devices further opportunity for Re-use.
Workhuman
Workhuman is a multinational company co-headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts and Dublin, pioneering the human workplace with Social Recognition and Continuous Performance Development software solutions. In 2020, the company became the latest Irish tech firm to reach unicorn status, with a valuation of $1.2 billion.
Workvivo
Workvivo is a new breed of employee communication platform designed to build natural, meaningful connections in teams while helping companies reach and engage their employees in ways that traditional tools simply can’t. Workvivo brings your people together, wherever they are. It’s your intranet, internal comms tool, employee app, all merged into one familiar social experience at the very heart of your digital workplace. With annual growth of over 200% year-on-year, 1,00,000+ users across more than 87 countries, and customers ranging from Fortune 500 companies to tech startups, Workvivo is on a mission – to elevate everyone’s workplace experience. To date, Workvivo has received backing from Tiger Global, Frontline Ventures, Zoom founder Eric Yuan and Enterprise Ireland. Workvivo is headquartered in Cork, Ireland. For more information, please visit https://www.workvivo.com.
Xtremepush
Xtremepush is an omnichannel customer engagement platform for high-velocity companies. It enables businesses to build, grow, and retain strong customer relationships through personalised, relevant, and timely communication. Hundreds of leading enterprise brands including Bank of Ireland, AIB, RTÉ, Big Bus Tours, Wowcher, and LiveScore, use Xtremepush to drive engagement and increase revenue.
