Individual company profile
A company profile is a short description of a company.
A typical context for a company profile is at the
beginning of a presentation.
Business activity
You usually start a company profile with a general
introduction describing your business activity and
the sector you operate in (eg financial services,
pharmaceuticals). Verbs to describe business activity
include: design, distribute, export, i111port, make,
manufacture, offer, operate, produce, provide, sell, specialize
in, supply.
We offer a wide range of financial services.
We provide network solutions to the telecom sector.
We specialize in software for the Ji.Im industry.
We sell fashion accessories - our main products are
shoes and bags.
We're in the hospitality business.
Location
Here you might talk about your H ead Office, the
location of your p roduction sites, etc.
We're based in Toulouse./Our Head Office is in Toulouse.
We have around 20 offices all over Europe.
We have production sites in Ro1nania and Turkey.
We have branches in Brazil and Mexico.
Size I Markets
There are many ways to ta lk about the size of a
company. You can talk abou t your market, the number
of employees, or use a financia l indicator such as sales
(=turnover/revenue) or profit.
We only operate in our domestic market.
We're an international company ivith operations in over
40 countries.
Our main markets are India and the Middle East.
We're the market leader./We're second in the market.
We have a market share of around 25%.
Our main competitors are AstraZeneca and Pfizer.
We employ 200 people. I We fzave 200 employees.
Our annual turnover is around €40 million.
Our operating profit last year lvas €15 rnillion.
You can find 111ore infor1nation about our financial
performance by looking at the Investor relations
section of our website.
1 Read the text for general understanding.
2 Read it again and underline the words you don't know.
Check their meaning.
10
A company may look small but be part of a larger
group w ith a completely different name.
We're part of the Media World group of companies.
We are a subsidiary of Media World.
Our parent company is Media World.
The co111pany has tl1ree divisions.
History
The history of a company includes its milestones(=
events or achievements that mark important stages
in its d evelopment). Verbs tha t are typically used to
describe a com pany history include: be founded, begil'),
buy, be bought, concentrate on, decide to, develop, diversify,
expand, grow, launch, n·1erge, move to, move into, open,
purchase, stop, start.
The company was set up/ established/founded in 1998
by 1ny father.
We moved our Head Office to Stuttgart.
We bought/ acquired/ took over a small local company.
We were bought/ were acquired/ were taken over by
an An1erican con1pany.
We merged with a Dutch company two months ago.
An important milestone was when sales passed $3 million.
We realized zue needed to diversify.
Sales grew rapidly in the Benelux region.
Sales suffered badly when the law changed.
We entered/ moved into the US market.
The publishing division was sold off
Our UK subsidiary was closed down.
The co111pa11y was broken up into four parts.
We opened a new factory I plantI production facility.
The company recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
A key factor in our success has been our staff
Future
Tf you are giving a presentation, this is the part that is
likely to be the most interesting.
We're going to open a new office in Indonesia.
We're going to take on an additional 30 staff
We're going to launch a new range of clothes aimed at
older wo111en.
We're planning to expand into South-East Asia.
We liope to go public (= become listed on the stock
marke t) next year.
Our ailn is lo be one of the top three biotech companies.
3 Highlight words you know passively, but don't use
actively. Choose some to write sentences of your own.
4 Check pronunciation at macmillandictionary.com
 3 INDIVIDUAL COMPANY PROFILE
Exercises

3.1 Match the beginnings of sentences 1- 8 with their 3 .6 Read the profile of clothing company H&M and
endings a-h. underline the correct word in italics. Not all the words
1 The company was found ed Ic
f(' .•
appear opposite.
2 The company was set c·g H&M is a Swedish clothing company in the 'value
3 The company merged f
4 The company realized it needed a fashion' 1sectionlsector. It has clothes 2aimedlpointed
5 The company h
decided to concentrate [_J at all age groups and both sexes, but it specializes
6 The company changed its name [ d~ 3inlon clothes for young women. H&M has more than

7 The company moved e 1,800 stores in 34 different countries and 4 employsl

8 The company was taken b C! employees over 75,000 people. Its 5 Head Office/Top
Office is in Stockholm, although the 6principallmajority
a up by three sof tware engineers f rom Bangalore.
b over by a larger competitor,
of its clothing is 1 manufacturedlfactoried in Bangladesh,
c by three software engineers from Bangalore. Indonesia, Romania and Turkey.
d to Informatica Solutions. The company \Vas 8 establishedlfound in 1947 and
e into the Chinese market. opened its first store 9abroadloutside in the 1960s.
f to diversify. Today it has an 10intensivelextensive network of stores
g w ith anot her Indian software developer. throughout Europe, North America, the Middle East and
h on IT services. East Asia.
A key factor in H&M's success has been its
3.2 Write a sentence number from Exercise 3.1 next to 11
collaborationslcollaborators with 'guest designers',
its closest meaning below.
including Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor &
2g
1 Some people started the company. .J_c._ and __
Rolf and Madonna. A recent guest designer was Jimmy
2 The company started selling its products in another
Choo, who designed 12a range/an arrangement of
7e
country. --····--
products not normally associated with H&M, like men's
3 The company decided to focus on one thing. 5h
__
shoes. H&M also works with pop stars such as Kylie
4 One company bought another company. 8b---·
Minogue to promote the 13brandladv ertising.
5 Two companies combined to form one company. __3f
_
H&M's main 14 competitorslconcurrents are US-based
6 The company knew t hat it had to develop new products
6d Gap and Spain's Inditex (owners of the Zara chain). It's
and activities. __
difficult to say which company is the biggest as 15 sales/
3 .3 Fill in the missing letters. sells differ from year to year and from country to country.
1 An event that marks an import ant stage in a process is At the time of writing Zara had the largest worldwide
ilest one.
called a m _____ 16 balance!revenue and the largest market 11 partlshare,

2 A company t hat is owned or con t rolled by anot her and so was the market 18 leaderlwinner. Gap was second
company is called a su ..ubsidi
. . . . ary. 19
inlon the market and H&M third.
3 To sound business-like, say 'a k ___ tac__ ...r' instead of H&M has slightly 20 belowllower prices than its
'one of t he important t hings'. competitors. A recent Annual Report described how
3.4 Gomplete each sentence 1- 3 with the correct this was achieved: having fe\v middlemen; buying
adverb a-c. You will make three phrasal verbs. large volumes; having a broad, in-depth 21 knowingl
1 The UK subsidiary was sold a up knowledge of design, fashion and textiles; buying the
2 The UK subsidiary was closed b off right 22 produceslproducts from the right market; being
3 The UK subsidiary was broken c down cost-conscious at every stage; and having 23 efficientl
proficient distribution.
3.5 Write a sentence
•
number from Exercise 3.4 next to Like other clothing retailers, these days H&M has to
the best explanation below.
pay a lot of attention to its social responsibility 24policyl
1 The UK subsidiary was losing money. The parent politics. It has to make sure that all 25 employslemployees
company decided it would be better if it stopped doing have good working conditions, especially in poorer
business completely. . 3.... countries, otherwise it risks negative media coverage
2 The UK subsidiary was profitable, but it didn't fit the
and 26 damageldamages to its brand.
plans of t he parent company. Another company was
interested in the subsidiary and bought it .1
See page 146 for some discussion topics.
3 The UK subsidiary was too large. The parent company
d ivided it into several smaller companies, keeping one
2 .
and selling the ot hers. ·····-

Companies and sectors 11