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Companies in Manchester

Manchester is the 2nd biggest place on the UK company register, with 113,249 live companies, or 2.0% of the UK total. 17,962 of those were formed in 2025. 10,289 (9.1%) have a proposal to strike off on file, above the UK figure of 7.3%. Compared with the UK as a whole, Manchester stands out for wholesale of textiles: 326 companies, 4.1 times the national share.

What Manchester has more of than the rest of the UK

Each trade's share of Manchester companies, compared with its share across the UK.

• Wholesale of textiles (326 companies)4.1×
• Non-specialised wholesale trade (2,683 companies)3.9×
• Activities of call centres (70 companies)3.3×
• Wholesale of clothing and footwear (774 companies)3.1×
• General medical practice activities (1,002 companies)2.1×

Biggest trades in Manchester

• Buying and selling of own real estate6,456
• Retail sale via mail order houses or via Internet6,309
• Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate5,903
• Management consultancy activities other than financial management3,235
• Non-specialised wholesale trade2,683
• Take-away food shops and mobile food stands2,127
• Business and domestic software development2,045
• Development of building projects2,027

Live Manchester companies, by year formed

Only companies still live are counted, so older years look smaller. 2026 stops on 1 November 2026.

See every year as a table

Year	Live companies
2012	1,801
2013	2,096
2014	2,613
2015	3,009
2016	3,199
2017	3,903
2018	4,563
2019	5,759
2020	5,343
2021	6,140
2022	6,549
2023	8,048
2024	10,515
2025	17,962
2026	17,236

Oldest active companies in Manchester

Funny company names registered in Manchester

Nearest in size

• London
• Birmingham
• Glasgow
• Edinburgh

Town means the post town of the registered address, which isn't always where a company trades. Many companies use an accountant's or formation agent's address. Figures come from Companies House on 1 November 2026.

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