Gartner, Inc. has released the findings from its annual Eurepean Supply Chain Top 15, identifying supply chain leaders and highlighting their best practices. Analysts announced the results at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference, which is being held this week at the O2 InterContinental Hotel in London, U.K.

“Europe-based supply chains built on their strong performance in 2017,” said Stan Aronow, research vice president at Gartner. “Ten European firms made it into the global top 25, one more than 2016 and five more than 2015.”

In the European top 15, Unilever, Inditex and H&M took the top three spots, in that order (see Table 1.) There were three new entrants this year: No. 13 Adidas, No. 14 Roche and No. 15 Siemens. They replaced three companies exiting since the 2016 ranking: No. 13 British American Tobacco, No. 14 Ahold Delhaize and No. 15 Bayer.

“The companies in the European top 15 demonstrated strong growth of 6.8 percent, which is more than double the average growth of the global top 25,” said Mr. Aronow. “Moreover, European companies scored above average in corporate social responsibility and opinion score performance.”

Table 1. Gartner’s European Supply Chain Top 15 for 2017

2017 Europe Rank

2017 Overall Rank

Company

Return on Assets1

Inventory Turns2

Revenue Growth3

CSR Component Score4

Composite Score5

1

1

Unilever

10.2%

6.8

1.9%

10.00

6.39

2

3

Inditex

16.3%

3.7

12.0%

10.00

4.98

3

5

H&M

22.0%

3.0

12.5%

10.00

4.63

4

7

Nestlé

7.9%

5.1

-0.6%

10.00

4.10

5

15

Nokia

5.8%

5.6

46.3%

10.00

3.32

6

16

BASF

6.1%

4.0

-10.6%

10.00

3.21

7

17

Schneider Electric

4.2%

5.1

-0.3%

10.00

3.15

8

20

L’Oréal

10.4%

2.8

5.1%

5.00

2.72

9

22

BMW

3.7%

4.1

6.6%

10.00

2.62

10

23

Diageo

8.9%

0.9

-1.7%

7.00

2.57

11

28

Reckitt Benckiser

12.7%

5.1

4.9%

9.00

2.36

12

29

GlaxoSmithKline

7.0%

1.7

6.8%

8.00

2.26

13

35

Adidas

5.6%

3.0

12.4%

6.00

2.08

14

36

Roche

12.4%

1.9

3.1%

9.00

2.05

15

38

Siemens

5.1%

3.0

3.9%

10.00

2.03