The food giant, Nestlé, is still Switzerland's number one company according to the latest list compiled by the "Handelszeitung" publication. The Vevey-based group ranks top in terms of turnover, profit and the number of employees.

With an annual turnover of SFr81.4 billion ($45.3 billion), Nestlé is just ahead of the raw materials trading company, Glencore, which has a turnover of SFr81.1 billion. The trading group, Metro, comes in third with a turnover of SFr73.2 billion.

The 10 largest Swiss companies have a combined annual turnover of SFr414 billion. There are now 125 companies with a turnover of more than SFr1 billion a year, 11 more than the previous year.

The fourth placed company in terms of turnover, ABB, has revenues of SFr38.8 billion followed by Novartis, Roche, Adecco, Migros, Swissair and Swisscom.

In terms of operating profit, Nestlé came in first place with SFr9.2 billion, followed by Novartis (SFr7.9 billion), Roche (SFr7.1 billion), ABB (SFr2.3 billion) and Holcim (SFr2 billion).

Nestlé employs 224,000 people, followed by Metro with 170,000 and ABB with 160,000.

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