New company incorporations in Manchester
In the 12 months to August 2026, Companies House records in this analysis show 14,883 new companies with a registered office in Manchester. Compared with the previous 12 months, the count increased. A registered office in Manchester is where a company is registered, not necessarily where it trades, and an incorporation is not a confirmed trading business.
The latest 12 months (solid) over the previous 12 (dashed). A month counting fewer than 10 companies is withheld and shown as a gap, never a zero.
| Month | 2024–25 | 2025–26 |
|---|---|---|
| Sep | 1,067 | 1,392 |
| Oct | 1,177 | 1,474 |
| Nov | 1,053 | 1,092 |
| Dec | 880 | 1,108 |
| Jan | 1,185 | 2,017 |
| Feb | 1,150 | 997 |
| Mar | 1,263 | 1,202 |
| Apr | 1,286 | 1,092 |
| May | 1,320 | 1,082 |
| Jun | 1,262 | 1,169 |
| Jul | 1,436 | 1,318 |
| Aug | 1,382 | 940 |
| Industry | Previous 12 months | Companies | Change | Share of area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail and e-commerce | 3,879 | 4,045 | ▲ 4.3% | 27.2% |
| Property and real estate | 1,506 | 1,382 | ▼ 8.2% | 9.3% |
| Software and IT services | 1,191 | 1,278 | ▲ 7.3% | 8.6% |
| Hospitality and food services | 1,162 | 1,082 | ▼ 6.9% | 7.3% |
| Construction and trades | 868 | 784 | ▼ 9.7% | 5.3% |
| Management consultancy | 568 | 624 | ▲ 9.9% | 4.2% |
| Health and social care | 596 | 619 | ▲ 3.9% | 4.2% |
| Marketing, advertising and design | 502 | 443 | ▼ 11.8% | 3.0% |
| Manufacturing | 517 | 424 | ▼ 18.0% | 2.9% |
| Transport, courier and logistics | 400 | 411 | ▲ 2.8% | 2.8% |
A company is counted in a group if any of its filed SIC codes falls in that group, so a company can appear in more than one group and these figures are not additive — they are not a breakdown of a whole. A filed SIC code records the activity declared at incorporation, not proof of current trading.
Address concentration is published as a share and a distinct-address count only; no address is shown. A registered-office address is taken from the record at extraction and may differ from the address at the time of incorporation.
- Boundary
- City of Manchester metropolitan district
- Geography code
- E08000003 (GSS), under geography version lr-geography-v1. Matching is by official code, never by text on the address.
- Postcode mapping
- The registered-office postcode is mapped to a local authority through the ONS Postcode Directory. Postcodes that cannot be mapped are counted separately, never reassigned to a neighbouring authority.
- Not included
- This is the City of Manchester, NOT Greater Manchester. M postcodes spill heavily into Salford, Trafford and Stockport, which are separate authorities and are not counted here.
- Registered office
- The address recorded at Companies House when the record was captured. It is not a verified trading location, an operational base or a founder's home.
- Incorporation
- A registration event. It is not evidence the company is trading, and it is not a business birth in the ONS sense.
- Historical addresses
- For backfilled months, the address is the one shown at extraction, which may differ from the address filed at incorporation.
- SIC codes
- Self-classified by the company at filing. A filed code is how the company described itself, not proof of current activity.
Launch Register analysis of Companies House public data: private limited companies incorporated with a registered office in Manchester in the 12 months to August 2026, geography mapped using the ONS Postcode Directory. Pages update in place, so quoting the release month keeps a figure reproducible.
https://launchregister.co.uk/company-statistics/locations/manchester/ · Data through August 2026 · Last updated 2026-09-18 · Coverage 2024-09/2026-08 · Methodology methodology-v1 · Geography lr-geography-v1 · Industry mapping sic2007-lr-v1
Download the data
- All local authorities
- All industries
- How these figures are produced
- New company statistics: Property and real estate
- New company statistics: Retail and e-commerce
- New company statistics: Software and IT services
- Companies House data for accountants
- SIC codes explained for UK accountants
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