41st Annual Black Enterprise 100s Report On Top Industrial/Service Companies, Auto Dealerships, Financial Companies and Ad Agencies on Newsstands Now

buzzz worthy. . .

BLACK ENTERPRISE (BE) marks 41 years of listing America’s largest black companies with the publication of the BLACK ENTERPRISE 100s, universally recognized as the most 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 2013 BE 100s Report: Accelerate Your Business is published in BLACK ENTERPRISE Magazine (currently on newsstands) as well as online atBlackEnterprise.com at http://www.blackenterprise.com/lists/be-100s-2013/.

When BLACK ENTERPRISE first compiled its “Top 100” in 1973, combined sales for the 100 component companies totaled $473 million. Results of the 2013 report show that the top 100 African American industrial/service companies—the core of the BE 100s report—collectively grossed more than $19.1 billion in 2012, a 2 percent increase over the previous year. The BE 100s industrial/service companies employed 53,866 people in 2012, a 3 percent reduction from 2011.

The 60 largest black-owned auto dealers generated an additional $7.2 billion in revenues and employed 8,415 people in 2012. However, despite the rebound of the domestic auto industry, the number of black-owned auto dealerships has yet to return to the levels prior to the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, when BLACK ENTERPRISE ranked the top 100 largest dealerships.

“The comeback of the American auto industry is a healthy and welcome development for our nation’s economy,” says BLACK ENTERPRISE Chairman and Publisher Earl Graves Sr. “However, until the way is made clear for more African Americans to own dealerships, at least in proportion to their representation before the recession, the recovery of the auto industry is far from complete.”

In addition to the BE 100s listings, the magazine also features profiles of Magic Johnson Enterprises CEO Earvin “Magic” Johnson, RLJ Companies Chairman and 2013 A.G. Gaston Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree Robert L. Johnson and the chief executives of the 2013 BLACK ENTERPRISE Companies of the Year:

Industrial/Service Company of the Year: Hightowers Petroleum, Middletown, OH; CEO, Stephen L. Hightower. Business: Petroleum Products Distribution

Auto Dealer of the Year: March Hodge Automotive Group, Tampa, FL; CEOs, Anthony March, Ernest Hodge. Business: Retail sales for automakers including Mazda, Toyota, Honda, Jaguar, Volvo, Volkswagen, Nissan, Infinity, Land Rover

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: Walton Isaacson, Los Angeles, CA; CEOs, Aaron Walton/Cory

“Our report on the largest African American-owned businesses in the U.S. highlights the achievements of intrepid entrepreneurs at the helms of top-flight organizations, while providing the most significant barometer of the progress of African Americans as business leaders and producers, not just consumers and laborers, in the global economy,” says BLACK ENTERPRISE Senior VP/Editor-in-Chief Derek T. Dingle. “Year after year, while reporting on the moves of the best of the best, we are inspired by the boundless ingenuity and determination of the CEOs of the BE 100s, worthy of emulation by all entrepreneurs, regardless of race.”

###