Online retail leads the family.
The 8 trades grouped into retail and food, busiest first. Online retail took 43,154 of the 126,759 counted here over the last twelve months, 34% of the family on its own. Each trade opens on its own page, broken down town by town.
| Trade | Oct 2026 | Last 12 months | Relative twelve-month volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online retail | 4,346 | 43,154 | |
| Takeaways | 1,716 | 19,256 | |
| Restaurants & cafes | 1,561 | 17,999 | |
| Hairdressing & beauty | 995 | 12,644 | |
| Convenience stores | 1,056 | 11,914 | |
| Catering & events | 771 | 9,999 | |
| Pubs & bars | 548 | 6,258 | |
| Wholesale | 501 | 5,535 | |
| Retail and food, all 8 trades | 11,494 | 126,759 |
The families are ours, not the register's: they exist so the colour on every chart means something. A company carrying more than one SIC code can land in more than one trade, so the rows above can count the same company twice and the family total is a total of the rows rather than a headcount of companies. The grouping is set out in full on the method page, SIC code by SIC code.
July was the busiest month.
New retail and food companies registered across the UK each month. The busiest month was July on 12,129. The quietest was December on 7,716.
New retail and food companies in the UK, by month
Nov 2025 – Oct 2026 · 126,759 in total
Registrations dip over Christmas and pick up in the new year in almost every trade, so compare a month with the same month a year earlier rather than with the one before it.
How far back it goes.
Retail and food companies still on the register, by year of incorporation, and the like-for-like comparison underneath: the first 10 months of 2026 against the same 10 months of 2025.
New retail and food companies in the UK, by year
2015 to 2026 · 2026 counts January to October only
Older years undercount. The register only holds companies that still exist. Anything formed in an earlier year and since dissolved has dropped off it, so the further back the chart goes the more it undercounts. That alone makes every trade look like it is growing. Some of the rise here is real growth and some of it is simply that recent companies have had less time to close. The long view of UK company formation takes the same problem apart across all 39 trades.
| Trade | Change | Jan–Oct 2025 | Jan–Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online retail | Up 35% | 27,926 | 37,632 |
| Takeaways | Up 11% | 14,968 | 16,625 |
| Restaurants & cafes | Up 10% | 14,172 | 15,605 |
| Catering & events | Up 10% | 8,020 | 8,794 |
| Wholesale | Up 10% | 4,323 | 4,741 |
| Hairdressing & beauty | Up 7% | 10,230 | 10,936 |
| Convenience stores | Up 6% | 9,582 | 10,173 |
| Pubs & bars | Up 6% | 5,147 | 5,463 |
8 of the 8 trades in this family registered more companies in the first 10 months of 2026 than in the same months of 2025; 0 registered fewer. Online retail moved most on the way up, at 35%.
Where retail and food firms are starting.
New retail and food companies registered over the last twelve months, by the post town on the registered office address, or, where that office is a formation agent, by the town the company's directors run their other companies from.
London is counted as a single post town, so it is not really in the same contest as the rest of the list. It took 3.9 times as many new retail and food companies last year as Birmingham. Leaving it in the ranking below would squash every other bar to a stub, so it sits up here on its own.
Ranked 2 to 16, without London
Bars scaled to Birmingham at 4,324, not to London
Each town above links to its busiest retail and food trade there where that pairing has enough volume for a page, and to the town itself where it does not. Every town counted, ranked and linked.
The rest of the register.
43,806 new companies were counted across all 39 trades in October 2026, 11,494 of them in this family. Here is where the other 32,312 landed.
Management consultancy, Web & software development, IT consultancy, Advertising & design, Business support services, Architecture & engineering, Education & training, IT support, Estate agents, Accounting, Recruitment, Photography, Legal services Property 80,044 2 trades · Last 12 months
Property investment & letting, Property management Building and trades 74,672 4 trades · Last 12 months
Construction, Electricians, Plumbers & HVAC, Landscaping People and care 41,761 7 trades · Last 12 months
Health practitioners, Cleaning services, Care services, Fitness, Security services, Childcare, Veterinary Transport and logistics 35,916 5 trades · Last 12 months
Freight & couriers, Motor vehicle repair, Used car dealers, Taxi & private hire, Removals
All 39 trades in one table · The long view · How the counts are made
86,235 new companies in retail and food, registered March to November 2026. Any month from £15.
86,235 companies in retail and food registered across the UK in March to November 2026 are in the file, each with its name, number, registered address, directors and trade. Every company registered, with its website, email and phone number where we can find one. Most companies this new have no website yet, so many rows will be the company, its address and its directors.
Bought per trade or as one retail and food file. National, the whole UK; filter by town in the file. Any month from £15; every month we hold for £2328.35, 10% off. 3p a company, £15 minimum an order. Pick one month, any mix, or everything.
- Online retail 33,130 companies £894.51
- Takeaways 14,079 companies £380.13
- Restaurants & cafes 13,161 companies £355.35
- Hairdressing & beauty 9,315 companies £251.51
- Convenience stores 8,588 companies £231.88
- Catering & events 7,414 companies £200.18
- Every trade, with its count and price
Pay by card. Within a minute an email tells you when your file will arrive: usually within a few hours, never more than 48 hours.
Not ready to buy? Every one of the 39 trades has a free sample: its 25 newest companies, with each one's registered address and directors, as a CSV. Pick the trade.
Five rows from this list, with an email found
Real companies from the file, picked from the ones we found an email for: most companies this new have none yet. The full file has every column and the whole address. We hide most of each email here, never in the file you buy.
| Company | Town | Registered | Trade | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BATTERSEA HAIR BOUTIQUE LIMITED | London | 8 Oct 2026 | Hairdressing & beauty | i•••@batterseahairboutique.com |
| EVERGREEN HUB LTD | London | 4 Aug 2026 | Online retail | i•••@evergreen-hub.com |
| SQUARE PIZZA NO1 LTD | Hull | 1 Jun 2026 | Takeaways | i•••@squarepizzano1.co.uk |
| YILDIZ KAPAK LTD | London | 16 Oct 2026 | Online retail | i•••@yildizkapak.com |
| PEOPLECRAFT LTD | Birmingham | 28 Jul 2026 | Wholesale | i•••@peoplecraft.co.uk |