Business Base

93,965 businesses are established in South London.

Smaller Businesses (businesses employing less than 199 employees) dominate the region representing an average of circa 68.6% of all employers.

Large multi-national corporations tend to cluster around the boroughs of Lambeth, Croydon and Southwark, all of which possess major transport hubs, Waterloo station in Lambeth, East Croydon station and London Bridge station in Southwark. Waterloo had over 50 million passengers going through the ticket barriers in 2007/2008. East Croydon station was third in the UK for interchanges during 2007-8, totalling 5.9 million people. London Bridge had 26.9 million people (entries) go through the station in 2007/8.
Sectors which dominate the region include: business and professional services, wholesale & retail, construction, hotels and restaurants and other community service activities.

Business services companies tend to be located around the boroughs of Wandsworth, Lambeth, Richmond, Croydon, Southwark and Bromley and some of the businesses operating in the area include: AIG, Mazars, Mondial, Pegasus Solutions (Utell) Capita, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Ernst & Young, Iron Mountain, Norton Rose, Withers & Rogers, Churchill Insurance, Cosmos Holidays, Bank of America and Baker Tilley.

Wholesale and retail sectors are strongest in Croydon, Wandsworth, Bromley, Southwark, Richmond and Kingston.

Construction expertise is centered on the boroughs of Croydon, Sutton, Merton, Bromley and Bexley. A sample of these operations in the sub-region include: Mott MacDonald, TPS Consult, Stonewest, Frankham Consultancy, Kingswood Construction, Marlborough Surfacing, Faber Maunsell, Haden Building, and EPS Maintenance.  

Hotels and restaurants are focused around the boroughs of Wandsworth, Lambeth, Croydon, Southwark and Bromley due to excellent transport connections. Key hotel chains operating in the area include: Holiday Inn, Travelodge, Jury's Inn, Marriott, Park Plaza, Travel inn, and Hilton, in addition to a number of independently run hotels.

Niche sectors in the area include: creative, energy, information technology, aerospace, financial intermediation, food & drink and the manufacturing sectors.
The creative industries are focused around Richmond, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Southwark and Lewisham. Companies operating in this field base in south London include: Teddington Studios (part of Pinewood Group); Twickenham Studios; Haymarket Publishing; Vivienne Westwood Studios; Eidos; Southwark has a number of renowned art galleries and theatres including Hays Galleria, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Pacific Playhouse; public relation companies Blue Rubicon and the Hogarth Partnership; marketing consultants Addison Corporate Marketing; Reflections Print Lamination, and Christies International Media Division.

There are a number of companies involved in the environmental and energy sectors, with significant representation in the boroughs of Richmond and Croydon, including AES, Wellington Holdings, Gazprom, Wingas, and SNC Lavalin. There is also a small centre of environmental excellence in the borough of Sutton, where BioRegional Consulting is based (provides sustainability consultancy services) and is based at the Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) in Wallington, the UK's largest eco-village.

A number of e-business and information technology sectors are located in Richmond, Kingston and Croydon. Companies include: BT, Bell Micro-Products, DST International, Fujikura, Inquiry Management Systems, Neolane, Northamber and Truition.

Within the knowledge sector, companies involved in aerospace, defence and related industries form an important part of London's high-tech capabilities. Due to the presence of Biggin Hill airport, Croydon airport (no longer operational), and Kingston as a major military aircraft manufacturing centre for much of the 20th century, there are a number of companies involved in the aforementioned industries. Companies include: Thales, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine, AMS (Alenia Marconi Systems owned equally by BAE SYSTEMS and Finmeccanica), Sigma Aerospace, Jet Aviation and Centronic.

There are two small financial intermediation clusters in Southwark and Bromley. Private equity houses, trading platforms and specialist financial institutions favour London Bridge including Montagu Private Equity, Hgcapital, Ansbacher & Co Ltd, IgIndex and City Fund Management, whilst back office functions by Bank of America, Capita and Liberata are carried out in Bromley, in addition to numerous small to medium sized enterprises involved in financial brokering, advice and services.

Lewisham and Southwark have a well established food and drink sector. This is due to the large fresh produce market - Borough Market - in Southwark, and the numerous food stalls and shops catering for the West African and Latin American communities in Peckham / Peckham Rye, Elephant and Castle and Deptford / New Cross areas.

South-East London has a higher proportion of business engaged in the manufacturing sector than the rest of South London. Examples of manufacturers include: Rolex, Coca Cola, Fujitsu and Ferndale Foods. Bexley has the highest concentration of manufacturers in South-East London.