Ranking the Nation's Largest Black-Owned Businesses

Business, investing and wealth-building resource Black Enterprise has published its “42nd annual listing of America's largest black companies” with the publication of the BLACK ENTERPRISE 100s.

The report is considered an authoritative analysis and annual ranking of the nation's top grossing black-owned companies. The BE 100s consists of rankings of America's 100 largest black-owned industrial/service companies, 60 automobile dealers, as well as listings of the top advertising agencies, banks, asset managers, investment banks and private equity firms.

The 2014 BE 100s Report: Scale Up Your Business is published in Black Enterprise Magazine (currently on newsstands) as well as online at BlackEnterprise.com.

This year's report, which has the theme, “Scale Up Your Business,” Black Enterprise found scores of BE 100s CEOs who have remodeled their companies for opportunity and expansion. In fact, scalability has been the foundation of growth for the five billion-dollar revenue leaders: World Wide Technology Inc., ACT-1 Group, Bridgewater Interiors L.L.C., Modular Assembly Innovations L.L.C., and RLJ McLarty Landers Automotive Holdings L.L.C.

When Black Enterprise first compiled its “Top 100” in 1973, combined sales for the 100 component companies totaled $473 million. Results of the 2014 report show that the top 100 African American industrial/service companies — the core of the BE 100s report — collectively grossed more than $21.8 billion in 2013, a $2 billion increase in revenue over the previous year. The BE 100s industrial/service companies employed 56,452 people in 2013. The 60 largest black-owned auto dealers generated $7.9 billion in revenues and employed 9,298 people in 2013.

In addition to the BE 100s listings, the magazine also features profiles of the chief executives of the 2013 Black Enterprise Companies of the Year:

Industrial/Service Company of the Year: ChemicoMays L.L.C., Southfield, MI; CEO, Leon C. Richardson. Business: Chemical Management Services
Auto Dealer of the Year: Rodgers Chevrolet Inc., Woodhaven, MI; CEO, Pamela Rodgers. Business: Retail sales for GM
Financial Services Company of the Year: Vista Equity Partners, San Francisco, CA; CEO, Robert F. Smith. Business: Private Equity (focus on technology)
Advertising Agency of the Year: commonground marketing, Chicago, IL; CEOs, Sherman Wright/Ahmad Islam

“The BE 100s – the nation's largest black businesses – continue to be the standard bearers for all American enterprises, demonstrating that sustained business growth comes when ideation and innovation is wedded to execution and excellence.” says Black Enterprise Senior VP/Editor-in-Chief Derek T. Dingle. “As such, most exhibit elasticity, capability, technological adaptability and branding power in a seesaw economic recovery and hyper-competitive business environment.”

Since 1970, BE has provided essential business information and advice to professionals, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and decision makers.