Most of our weekly SIC write-ups ask which sectors are biggest. This week we ask a different question: which sectors are oldest? Every company Archive Partners tracks carries both a set of SIC codes and an incorporation date from Companies House, and putting the two side by side shows that the UK’s sectors are at very different stages of life.
For this exercise we took the first SIC code listed against each company as its primary sector, grouped those into standard SIC sections, and looked at when the companies were incorporated. That covers 636 of our 650 tracked companies. The remainder lack a usable code or date. Across the whole group the median incorporation year is 2007. About a third (32%) were incorporated in 2015 or later, and about a third (33%) before 2000.
The old guard: manufacturing and wholesale. Manufacturing is the clearest example of an established sector. Its 111 companies have a median incorporation year of 1991, and only 12% were formed in 2015 or later. Our oldest company overall, Harris & Bailey Limited, dates from 1913. Wholesale and retail trade, the largest section with 112 companies, sits at a median of 2003 or 2004, with 20% post-2014. These are sectors where the businesses on the register have been filing accounts for decades, and where a company’s age is often a reasonable proxy for how settled its operations are.
The middle: construction and business services. Construction is more mixed. Its 95 companies have a median of 2011, and 37% were incorporated since 2015. That fits a sector with plenty of long-established contractors alongside a steady flow of new small firms and project vehicles. Professional services (44 companies, median 2012 or 2013, 45% post-2014) and administrative and support services (48 companies, median around 2006 or 2007) sit in a similar zone.
The young sectors: finance and hospitality. Finance and insurance stands out at the other end. Its 43 companies have a median incorporation year of 2018, and 79% were formed in 2015 or later. That is partly a structural effect. In this sector, many entries are holding and financing vehicles set up for a specific purpose, so the register fills with recent incorporations even when the underlying business is older. Hospitality shows a gentler version of the same pattern: 20 companies, median 2016, with 55% incorporated since 2015. Education and energy look young too, but with 8 and 4 companies respectively, we would not draw firm conclusions from them.
Why this matters for filings. Company age is not just trivia. Younger companies tend to be on their first few filing cycles, and their accounts, confirmation statements and officer changes arrive in different rhythms from those of a company that has filed the same way for thirty years. A sector dominated by recent incorporations will usually show more changes in structure, such as new officers, new holding layers and changes of accounting date, while an older sector’s filing history tends to be steadier and more predictable. If you use filing signals to monitor a portfolio of suppliers or counterparties, the sector’s age profile is worth knowing before you decide what counts as an unusual event.
A caution on reading the numbers. These are medians and shares from a tracked group of 650 companies, not the whole UK register, and small sections such as energy or mining are too thin to compare. A company’s primary SIC code is also self-declared and can be broad, and the first code listed is not always the most representative one. Treat the figures as a snapshot of the companies we follow, not a verdict on any industry.
Each company profile on Archive Partners shows its incorporation date alongside its SIC codes, accounts due date and filing history, so you can run the same comparison for a county or sector you care about. Browse a county page to see where the oldest and newest names in your area sit.