The Largest Private Company in the U.S.

By Brooks Johnson, Minneapolis Star Tribune.
(via TNS)

With Cargill’s record-setting revenue announced earlier this year, the company has once again claimed the top spot in the annual Forbes ranking of America’s largest private companies released Tuesday.

The Minnetonka-based firm has topped the list almost every year since Forbes introduced it in 1985. Only three times — most recently in 2020— has Cargill slipped to second place.

With annual revenue of $177 billion, the food and agribusiness giant beat second-place Koch Industries by $52 billion. That gap is nearly as large as the total revenue of the third-place company on the list, grocery chain Publix.

Cargill’s most recent fiscal year ended in May and included the new $4.5 billion joint venture in Wayne-Sanderson Farms and acquisitions of Owensboro Grain Co. and Croda.

“We’re grateful for the trust our customers place in us and energized by the growth we’re achieving together,” CEO Brian Sikes said in Cargill’s annual report. “We set our sights higher in fiscal year 2023 with investments that will enhance the value we bring to our customers.”

The company is a leading player in global food supply chains and has 160,000 employees in 70 countries.

Other Minnesota companies that made the Forbes list this year include DigiKey at 121; Mortenson at 131; Ryan Cos. at 160; and Andersen Corp. at 170 with $3.8 billion in revenue last year.

Fourth-place Mars Inc. of Virginia was briefly based in Minnesota when the company introduced the Milky Way bar a century ago.

As for public companies, Minnesota has one in the top 10 in the U.S.: UnitedHealth Group, which ranks fifth in the Fortune 500 with $324 billion in revenue. Target is the next Minnesota-headquartered company on that list at number 33 with $109 billion in revenue.

Accounting