Top places for local firms

Moy Park were placed 5th with Almac 26th, Clearway Holdings 34th, James E McCabe 80th and the Ben Sherman Group 97th.

Craigavon DUP Councillor Dr Philip Weir passed on his congratulations to the companies and said: "These results serve to illustrate that Craigavon is a key hub for business, which is important as we seek to refashion the Northern Ireland economy into one based around the private sector.

"Neighbouring Councils to Craigavon, Armagh and Banbridge, each had only company listed. Fane Valley at 23rd were the only other company from County Armagh included, meaning only six from the county made it into the top 100 compared with nine last year."

The Ulster Business awards are in their 22nd year. Moy Park with 2,885 employees was the only Craigavon company in the province’s forty largest employers. Moy Park’s acquisition of O’Kane Poultry in May had still to be factored into the statistics.

The four companies which were ranked ahead of Moy Park were Viridian, Quinn Group, Glen Elecric and FG Wilson.

The rankings relates in the majority of cases to the 2008-09 financial year end performance. Turnover is used as the key identifier in conjunction with profitability and shareholder value.