UK SIC 2007 · 90040
Operation of arts facilities (SIC code 90040)
Operation of arts facilities is UK SIC code 90040. It sits in division 90 (Creative, arts and entertainment activities) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 5,943 active UK companies list 90040 among their SIC codes. 2,675 of them list it first.
Division 90: Creative, arts and entertainment activities
Individual creators dominate this division. Code 90030, artistic creation, is used by artists, authors, illustrators and composers trading through limited companies. Code 90010 covers performing arts. Actors, musicians and theatre producers pick it. Behind the stage, 90020 holds support activities: lighting, sound, set construction and stage management. Code 90040 marks the operators of arts venues and facilities. Personal service companies far outnumber real organisations here. That is what happens when performers incorporate for tax and contracting reasons.
Related SIC codes
Who prospects SIC 90040 companies
Accountants who specialise in entertainment work this division most systematically. They watch new 90010 and 90030 companies, which mean a performer or creator is putting their affairs in order. Specialist insurers, equipment suppliers and hire companies target the production support codes, where firms own kit and premises. Venues under 90040 buy ticketing, bar and event technology. Filing deadlines are a genuinely useful signal here, because creators often neglect admin. Website quality tells you less. Many performers live on social platforms instead, so treat the poor-website filter with care in this division.
Lead generation for commercial & B2B services →How to read SIC 90040
SIC 90040 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 90, are the division, creative, arts and entertainment activities. Add the third and you have group 900; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section R, arts, entertainment and recreation, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 90040 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 90040 are London (1,705), Glasgow (117), Manchester (114), Edinburgh (91) and Bristol (88). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 90040 as a filter
5,943 companies is 0.11 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 90040 4th most used of the 4 codes we track in division 90. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
Only 2,675 of the 5,943 companies carrying 90040 put it first. The other 3,268, 55 per cent, list it behind another code, which usually means the business does more than one thing and files 90040 as a sideline. A search that matches the first code only will miss most of this population, so match on any of the four SIC positions and use a second filter to tighten it.
The population is concentrated: the five busiest post towns hold 36 per cent of it, and London alone accounts for 29 per cent. If you sell nationally, those five towns are most of the market. If you sell locally and you are not in one of them, expect a much smaller pool and widen the radius early.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 90040 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 90040, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 5,943 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 90040 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 90040 companies, as leads
Live rows from the enriched register. Email and phone values are withheld until you sign up.
Tell us the kind of company you sell to and we find them on the public record. One credit is one lead: the record, the director, a verified website and a verified email. If we cannot complete it, you are not charged. 25 free to start, no card.
About SIC 90040
How many UK companies use SIC code 90040?
5,943 active UK companies list 90040 (Operation of arts facilities) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 2,675 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
Do freelance musicians and actors need a limited company?
No. Plenty work as sole traders. Many still incorporate, either for tax planning or because engagers prefer to contract with a company. Those companies usually register 90010 or 90030. The director chooses the SIC code at incorporation, with no approval process, and can revise it later on a confirmation statement (CS01). A performer who also teaches can add a cultural education code, up to 4 in total.
What is the difference between SIC codes 90010 and 90020?
Code 90010 is for the performers and producers themselves: actors, musicians, dancers and theatre companies. Code 90020 covers the businesses that make a performance possible without appearing on stage. That means lighting, sound, rigging, set building and stage management. The split matters commercially. Firms under 90020 own equipment and buy insurance, finance and crew. Entries under 90010 are mostly personal service companies that spend very little.
Find UK SIC 90040 companies
✓ No card · ✓ 25 free leads · ✓ Cancel anytime