A national newspaper hailed it as Britain as never seen before in a map showing the top firm in every county.
Matthew Rock of data firm Due Dil was quoted in a Daily Mirror article entitled ‘Who’s the Business?’ as saying ‘What you see is a tapestry of talent.’
But readers of the paper would have been somewhat bewildered by the entry for the Isle of Man.
For according to the interactive map pride of place in the island goes to the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation which in fact is now reported to be defunct.
The IBRC was the name given to the entity formed in 2011 by the court-mandated merger of the Irish state-owned banking institutions Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society. The Irish government drove through legislation to liquidate it in February last year.
Business News contacted Matthew Rock, editor-in-chief of data firm Due Dil to query the entry last Thursday morning.
He later emailed Business News saying: ‘As I thought, it was included in error.
‘I recommended that this entry be removed.
‘I didn’t feel as if we had reliable enough data for the Isle of Man.
‘However, it was still included. I’ve asked for it to be taken out now.’
Later on Thursday afternoon on the Daily Mirror website the Isle of Man entry had been removed from the interactive map.
Earlier, before it was erased, it claimed the Irish Bank Resolution Department had a turnover of £1.98billion.
Company research firm DueDil apparently searched thousands of company records to find the largest firm by turnover in every county and metropolitan area in the UK.
It is also obvious that it was also unaware that the Isle of Man is a separate jurisdiction and is not part of the UK.
Mr Rock told the Mirror: ‘What you see in this business map of Britain is a tapestry of talent, a blend of old and new companies, foreign-owned and home-grown, traditional industries and the cutting edge.
Business News contacted the Isle of Man Department of Economic Development and was told any information held by them on annual turnover is confidential.