LONDON, Nov 16 – Regional retailer Nakumatt Holdings has landed a spot in the coveted CampdenFB World’s Top 50 fastest growing family businesses.
In the listing published in the current edition of the authoritative magazine which was formerly known as ‘Families in Business’ Nakumatt has reserved a slot at position 28 in the CampdenFB Top 50 Global Challengers list.
Nakumatt Holdings Managing Director Atul Shah credited his firm’s ranking to continued efforts to turn his family’s business heritage into a contemporary business management success story.
“On behalf of the extended Nakumatt family which includes the customers, staff and directors, I am sincerely honoured and humbled that an East African company has been ranked among global giants in the CampdenFB top 50 global challengers list,” Shah said.
Nakumatt’s success, Shah explained is still deeply rooted in family values and the support of its 5,500 staff members and millions of customers.
“This ranking is particularly dedicated to all our partners and stakeholders who have played a very crucial role in facilitating our growth and will also serve as the much needed encouragement ahead of our continental rollout,” he added.
With operations in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and set to open in Tanzania in coming weeks, Nakumatt clocked in at position 22 a slot ahead of Belgium’s Bekaert Group after managing to post a 22 percent revenue growth over the past two years.
To rank the companies, CampdenFB looked at revenue growth in local currency during the three-year period from 2008 until the end of 2010. The listing vindicates the fact that the world economy may be suffering, but many family business are growing faster than ever.
The global research listing by CampdenFB in conjunction with Ernst & Young also places Nakumatt at the top spot in the African family businesses with South Africa’s Pick N Pay associated with the Ackerman family closing in at position 41 in the highly competitive rankings.
Interestingly, only Nakumatt owned by the Shah family and Pick n Pay made it on the list from Africa.
According to Ernst & Young’s Head of Family Business Centre of Excellence, Peter Englisch, family businesses have globally managed to adapt to emerging business challenges allowing them to thrive even as other corporates found the going tough.
“The advantages of family businesses are the more long term oriented strategy and the flexible governance that allows them to react more quickly to changes in the business environment,” Englisch noted.
“The transition from entrepreneurial to family business will become the most relevant issues in the former non market economies such as Russia and China,” he added.
To be included in the CampdenFB list, all global businesses must have met stringent evaluation criteria.
Among others, the companies must have had at least one representative of the family formally involved in the governance of the firm.
Listed companies needed to have met the definition of family enterprise, if the person who established or acquired the firm or their families or descendants, still possess at least 20 percent of the decision-making rights mandated by their share capital.
Other parameters used in the evaluation included having revenues of no more than five billion euros either publicly available or made available to CampdenFB.
The CampdenFB Top 50 Global Challengers list ranked Argentina’s renewable energy solutions provider IMPSA as the top family business in the world having registered a 115.6 percent revenue gain in the last two years.
Other global leaders in the Top 50 Global Challengers ranking include leading British construction firm Willmott and Dixon, Danish toy manufacturer Lego, United States Clothes retailer Forever 21 among others which are ranked second, third, fourth and fifth respectively.
Other notable leaders on the list include: American Financial Group listed at position 19, French writing products firm Bic, listed at position 21, luxury goods manufacturer Prada listed at position 24 and Beverage brand Campari listed at position 26.
Published quarterly in the United Kingdom and distributed globally since 2001, CampdenFB magazine has provided business-owning families of substantial wealth with the knowledge, insights and vital business intelligence they require to manage their enterprises and their families successfully.
Each quarterly issue contains exclusive family interviews, dedicated sections on all aspects of finance, governance and the next generation, timely special reports, comment and debate, news analysis and lifestyle features.
Supported by the Family Business Network, CampdenFB is a controlled circulation publication that is delivered exclusively to 9,000 qualified families.
