Northern Ireland’s billion-pound firm club: From Almac to Hendersons

Pharmaceutical firm Almac this week joined an elite group of Northern Ireland businesses with an annual turnover of more than £1bn.

But who are the other local firms with annual turnover of more than £1bn?

And how have they come to become some of the most lucrative businesses in Northern Ireland?

Starting with Almac, here’s a run down of those companies comprising Northern Ireland’s billion club.

The firm, based in Craigavon, County Armagh, is one of Northern Ireland’s few genuinely multinational firms with significant operations in the US as well as facilities in Singapore, the Republic of Ireland and England.

The Almac Group was founded by Sir Allen McClay in 2002, who then structured it, before his death in 2010, so it is owned by a charitable trust.

That structure means the firm has to constantly reinvest its profits and is also protected from takeover – keeping it close to its Northern Ireland roots.

Its main business is providing services like manufacturing and distribution to the world’s major pharmaceutical firms.

It also has a drug discovery division – for example, earlier this month it reached an agreement to licence a cancer treatment to a Taiwanese firm for further development and commercialisation.

The Graham group is Northern Ireland’s biggest building firm with current projects including the Loft Lines apartment development in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.

Its growth over the past 20 years has been based on expansion in Great Britain, particularly the Scottish market.

Industry data suggests it is now among the UK’s 30 biggest construction firms.

It is headquartered in Dromore, County Down, where John Graham set up in 1878, although company archives suggest the business has existed in some form since the late 1700s.

Michael Graham has been the company chairman since 2007, having been managing director in the 10 years before that.

LCC’s best known brand is the Go chain of filling stations, which is part of a portfolio of energy businesses.

LCC stands for Lissan Coal Company, which reflects the company’s origin as an importer and retailer of coal.

Coal continues to be a significant part of the business with operations in Spain, Belgium and Colombia.

It sells home heating oil under a variety of brands and has its own terminal at Foyle port where it imports and stores liquid fuels.

It has been supplying electricity since 2012 and gas since 2014 under the Go brand, mostly to industrial and commercial users rather than households.

The business, which is owned and operated by Michael Loughran, is based in Cookstown, County Tyrone.

Henderson Holdings controls the Spar and Vivo franchises in Northern Ireland.

It has held the Spar franchise since 1960.

It owns and operates 111 Spar and Eurospar stores in Northern Ireland and acts as the supplier to hundreds more independently owned Spars and Vivos.

It also has a food service business, which supplies about 4,500 customers including schools, hospitals and hotels.

The business was founded in the 1890s by John Henderson, a merchant who sold cheese, butter and eggs.

He expanded into wholesaling, initially from St George’s Market in Belfast.

When he retired in 1943, his son-in-law, William Agnew, took a controlling share in the business. It continues to be operated by the Agnew family.

The Barnett group has its origins as a 19th Century grain merchant and its brands are best known in the agricultural industry.

It supplies animal feeds under the Thompsons and R&H Hall brands but has a much wider business across agricultural commodity trading and manufacturing.

A decade ago the company diversified by buying a stake in Logson, a packaging manufacturer, later buying full control of that business.

Earlier this year it bought a majority stake in Symphony Group, the UK’s largest privately-owned manufacturer of fitted furniture.

The addition of the Symphony Group is likely to see the group turnover exceed £2bn.

Two other businesses qualify for the £1bn club but they are not Northern Ireland businesses in the same way as the five above.

Moy Park, the chicken producer, had a turnover of more than £2bn in 2023 and is a NI-registered company.

However it has been owned by US-based Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation since 2017.

Similarly Power NI had a turnover of just more than £1bn in 2024 but it is part of the Dublin-based Energia Group.

Energia is in turn owned by I Squared Capital, a Miami-based investment business.