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Royal Dutch Shell produces the best online annual report among Britain's leading companies but one third of its peers in the FTSE 100 index fail to take advantage of online opportunities.

By contrast, a handful of FTSE 250 companies add real value to their brands with carefully planned online annual reports that compete with the very best of Britain's biggest companies.

The Smiths Partnership has ranked Britain's top 350 listed companies on the quality of their online annual reports and classified them as either Leaders, Communicators or Non-starters accordingly

The interactive graph at the bottom of this page highlights each score and classification.

Just 33 companies are categorised as leaders, who, according to managing director Nick Smith, use the online medium to its full potential, adding real value to their reporting and brands.

And 11 leaders are FTSE 250 companies, including electronics component distributor Premier Farnell, which attained second place in the rankings, sandwiched between Royal Dutch Shell in top slot and Aviva.

Premier Farnell's position is even more impressive because, at the time of comparison, its market capitalisation was 20 times smaller than Aviva and 225 times smaller than that of Royal Dutch Shell.

Another FTSE 250 alumni Rentokil Initial comes in at fourth position, ahead of packaging giant Rexam. Smiths believe that their performance is the 'clearest indication that limited resources are no excuse for sub-standard reporting'.

The rankings, which relate to online reports published by the end of June 2008, place 79 companies as communicators, which is defined as a company that has a genuine ambition to engage through the online medium, but has enjoyed varying degrees of success.

Smiths judges that 34 communicators are FTSE 250 companies, which still leaves 82 per cent of their peers as non-starters when it comes to online reporting. This means they only produce basic PDF or 'image based' reports, and lack any real ambition to communicate with or engage the viewer.

But the good news is that the vast majority of FTSE 100 companies fall into the category of communicator. Over two thirds use HTML, which Smiths describe as 'the native language of the Internet', to produce both the narrative and financial tables of their reports.

Mining group Anglo American, retailer William Morrison and insurance company Prudential are among those who moved from producing a simple PDF report to HTML over the year, while the formerly named Lloyds TSB and British Airways moved from a gif-based annual report. By contrast, catering group Compass, Cairn Energy and Shire Pharmaceuticals lost their enthusiasm for HTML reporting.

However, the report also demonstrates the problem with resting on laurels. While Intercontinental Hotels' online report in 2007 was strong enough to catapult the hotels group into the top five, in the latest ratings it has slipped down to 21. According to Smiths, it had not adapted or improved its online annual report, allowing others who improved their offering to boost their position.

The report clearly also identifies 30 of the UK's FTSE 100 companies as non-starters, who are still not willing to provide equal access to a transparent and engaging annual report online.

Smiths employs 21 criteria to judge each annual report in two distinct categories - best practice and engagement. Companies receive points for adhering to the best practice guidelines of bodies such as the Investor Relations Society and W3C, while engagement points are awarded for construction, navigation and communication. Companies that only provided a PDF, indexed or not, received an automatic zero.

How did your company fare?

Source: Smiths Partnership

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