Disappeared:
Allied Domecq: acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2005
BAA: acquired by Ferrovial in 2006
Body Shop International: acquired by L'Oreal in 2006
Boots Group: acquired by Alliance UniChem, then acquired by KKR in 2007
Cadbury Schweppes: beverage business demerged to Dr Pepper Snapple, confectionery business acquired by Kraft Foods in 2010
Cambridge Antibody Technology Group: acquired by AstraZeneca in 2006
Emap: sold Emap Australia to ACP magazines in 2007, the radio, TV and consumer media business to Bauer in 2008, the remainder acquired by Apax and Guardian Media in 2008
Gallaher Group: acquired by Japan Tobacco in 2007
Hilton Group: hotels sold to Hilton Hotels Corporation, remainder renamed to Ladbrokes
Imperial Chemical Industries: acquired by AkzoNobel in 2007
Manchester United: delisted and taken private by the Glatzer family in 2005
Matalan: taken private in 2006
Reuters Group: merged with Thomson in 2007
Scottish and Newcastle: acquired by Heineken and Carlsberg in 2008
EMI Group: after heavy losses in 2006 acquired by Terra Firma Capital Partners in 2007
GUS: split up and sold off in 2006
MFI: placed into administration and ceased operation in 2008
Woolworths Group: placed into administration in 2008
Egg: after heavy operating losses in 2006 acquired by Citigroup in 2007
Eidos: after having lost 74 percent of value from 2005 to 2009 acquired by Square Enix
Underperformed:
3i Group: -72,5%
AEA Technology: -85.9%
Barclays: -49.6%
BP: -47.06%
British Airways: -24,8%
BT Group: -52.12%
GKN: -52,8%
Glaxo Smith Kline: -14.6%
HSBC: -40.7%
Marks and Spencer: -2.9%
Psion: -61.8%
Rentokil Initial: -26.5%
RM: -6.9%
Royal Bank of Scotland: -91.9%
Shell Transport and Trading (now Royal Dutch Shell): -14.3%
Tomkins: -10.4%
Vodafone: -6.46%
Performed:
AstraZeneca: +28.6%
BAE Systems: +14.6%
Barr (A.G.): +4.5%
British Sky Broadcasting: +33.9%
Centrica: +31.1%
Diageo: +31.6%
Easyjet: +71.3%
Invensys: +151%
Morrisons Supermarkets: +46.6%
Oxford Instruments: +30.6%
Pearson: +40.1%
Reckitt Benckiser: +91.71%
Rolls-Royce: +105.1%
Sainsbury: +14.13%
Scottish and Southern Energy: +12%
Smith & Nephew:+21.3%
WH Smith: +2%
SSL International: +186.1%
Tesco: +26.6%
Ultra Electronics Holdings: +98.24%
Unilever: +54.4%
J D Wetherspoon: +52.5%
Whitbread: +20.5%
WPP Group: +12.8%
Not surprisingly, the stocks on this list perform (or don't) because of their overall positioning, their strategies, the markets they serve, the economic situation, and a few other things. But they don't perform on the stock market because of design awards, as valuable as these might be in their own right.
No doubt, there are companies whose value proposition is strongly connected to their use of design - Apple (not on the Design Council index) being the most prominent example. Yet for a company to succeed through design, it is not about design being a peripheral activity - for which, if it turned out particularly well, at times a design award might be had. It is about the how and when of design, and all other corporate activity, in response to, or -even better- anticipation of the market.
