GLAXOSMITHKLINE* TOPPLES TESCO TO WIN BRITAIN'S MOST ADMIRED COMPANY

30 November 2000

STRICTLY UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 10.00PM THURSDAY 30 NOVEMBER

Sir John Browne is BRITAIN’S MOST ADMIRED BUSINESS LEADER for the second year, winning by a massive margin

Pearson, the media sector winner, jumps nearly 100 places to number 14

Iceland wins the Special Award for Community and Environmental Responsibility

GlaxoSmithKline was named as BRITAIN’S MOST ADMIRED COMPANY by Management Today, in association with eLoyalty, at a prestigious awards ceremony in London tonight, Thursday 30 November. Now in its 11th year, BRITAIN’S MOST ADMIRED COMPANY is a unique UK index where the winners are selected by those best placed to judge – their peers.

GlaxoSmithKline, not yet a single entity but a merger waiting to complete, has knocked Tesco off the top to win what has been called the ‘Oscar of the British business world’. After three number one placings in four years, Tesco has been toppled – and it took last year’s number two and number three together to end this record-breaking run. GlaxoSmithKline also scoops three out of nine special awards.

Sir John Browne, CEO of BP, becomes BRITAIN’S MOST ADMIRED BUSINESS LEADER for the second year running, attracting more votes than the two other shortlisted candidates – Chris Gent (Vodafone) and Gerry Robinson (Granada) – put together.

Rufus Olins, editor-in-chief of Management Today, comments on this year’s awards:
‘Your enemy in business is your harshest judge and probably the one closest to the truth about your strengths and weaknesses. The boardrooms of Britain have anticipated that GlaxoSmithKline will become an awesome force.’

Vaughan Thomas, chief executive of International Business at eLoyalty adds:
‘These awards showcase the achievements of companies whose names have become bywords for quality products and services in their respective industries. To come out on top, in the face of such competition, is a tremendous achievement for GlaxoSmithKline.’

BT barely makes the top 100 at 93 – 53 places lower than Pizza Express. Pearson rises dramatically from last year’s 106 to 14, and the Sage Group enters the top ten this year at number 8.

Management Today’s BRITAIN’S MOST ADMIRED COMPANY top ten are:

1. GlaxoSmithKline (2nd, 3rd last year)
2. BP (6th)
3. Shell Transport and Trading (47th)
4. Cadbury Schweppes (5th)
5. Tesco (1st)
6. Exel (-)
7. AstraZeneca (10th)
8. Sage Group (17th)
9. Unilever (7th)
10. GKN (13th)

Special Awards were also made in the following categories:

Quality of Management - BP
Financial Soundness - Land Securities
Quality of Goods and Services - Cadbury Schweppes
Ability to Attract, Develop and Retain Top Talent - GlaxoSmithKline
Value as a Long Term Investment - GlaxoSmithKline
Capacity to Innovate - BSkyB
Quality of Marketing - GlaxoSmithKline
Environmental Responsibility - Iceland
Use of Corporate Assets - BP

As well as spectacular winners, this year’s awards have produced some interesting losers: BRITAIN’S FOUR LEAST ADMIRED COMPANIES in the survey are:

1. Alldays (least admired)
2. British Borneo
3. British Energy
4. Somerfield

-ends-

*A merger of Glaxo Welcome and SmithKline Beecham was agreed in January 2000 and is expected to be completed shortly. They were judged as a single entity.


Notes to Editors:
The judging
The top management teams from 239 of Britain’s biggest organisations and 15 leading investment companies are polled. Results are analysed by a team of business researchers led by Nottingham Business School.

1. The winner of BRITAIN’S MOST ADMIRED COMPANY receives a specially commissioned trophy and use of the prestigious logo and title for the next 12 months
2. Rufus Olins, editor-in-chief of Management Today, and Vaughan Thomas, chief executive of International Business at eLoyalty, may be available for interview
3. Management Today is Britain’s leading business magazine
4. eLoyalty (NASDAQ:ELOY) focuses exclusively on helping companies build loyal relationships with their customers to deliver tangible economic returns. As an eCRM consultancy and systems integrator, eLoyalty has more than 1,000 professionals in offices throughout North America, Europe and Australia. eLoyalty combines a focused vision, proven business model, processes, technologies, support and hosting methodologies to create complete eCRM solutions. Customers include Eircell, Axel Springer Verlag, HP, Toshiba and Herts County Council. The eCRM specialist also has strategic partnerships with Nortel, Cisco and Oracle.

Management Today, Britain's leading business magazine, launches its new look on Tuesday 29 April.
The new, April issue of Management Today is published on 29 March 1999,
price £ 3.50.
Management Today is available at news stands or by subscription tel: .

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Colman Getty PR
July 2000