As the U.S. economy accelerated last year, so, too, did business for Hispanic-owned companies, propelling this year's Hispanic Business Fastest-Growing 100® directory to five-year highs in total revenue, productivity, and job growth.
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For 2003, total revenue for the Fastest-Growing 100 surged to $7.01 billion, up 39 percent from $5.03 billion in 2003. While comprising just 20 percent of all firms on the Hispanic Business 500® directory of the largest U.S. Hispanic-owned companies, total revenues of the Fastest-Growing 100 accounted for more than 26 percent of the HB500's record total revenues of $26.3 billion last year.
As a whole, the Fastest-Growing 100 companies maintained an average growth rate of more than 500 percent from 1999 to 2003, with a compounded annual growth rate of 67.2 percent. During those same five years, the U.S. economy posted average annual growth of 2.8 percent.
| THE 100: STATISTICAL COMPOSITE OF THE TYPICAL COMPANY | ||
| Five-year sales growth | 362.05% | |
| Company age | 13.6 years | |
| Number of employees in 1999 | 100 | |
| Number of employees in 2003 | 286 | |
| Revenues in 1999 | $15.17 million | |
| Revenues in 2003 | $70.09 million | |
| Per-employee productivity in 1999 | $151,532 | |
| Per-employee productivity in 2003 | $245,129 | |
| © 2004 Hispanic Business Inc. Reprinting, copying, or transmitting all or part of this information requires written permission. | ||
More than 75 percent of companies in this year's directory are in the service and construction sectors. And in a sign of the growing maturity of the U.S. Hispanic economy, mid-size companies – defined as firms with annual revenues of $5 million to $50 million – make up nearly 70 percent of all companies on the directory.
The clear winner in job growth was Virginia, where nearly a dozen Hispanic-owned companies added more than 5,000 jobs from 1999 to 2003 – an increase of 184 percent, to 7,759. Among companies driving that growth was MVM Inc., a security and staffing company that operates in the U.S. and abroad. Amid increased security concerns in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, MVM Inc. has grown from 1,788 workers in 1999 to 4,858 in 2003.
Miami-based Latin Node Inc. tops this year's Fastest-Growing 100 directory with a soaring five-year growth rate of 107,993 percent. Early on, the company embraced the emerging innovation of voice-over-Internet protocol and now is a wholesale provider of Internet voice-communications service for major companies, such as AT&T and Bell South.
CEO Jorge Granados sees continued expansion, including to emerging markets in Africa, the Caribbean, and to VoIP mobile phones in Europe and Asia – financing it all with preferred stocks, bank loans, or maybe taking the company public.
"Around 25 percent of the market is run by companies like Latin Node," says Mr. Granados. "The future will see the big companies controlling about 50 percent of the market, with the other 50 percent being controlled by small to mid-size specialty providers able to offer quality service to niche markets – providers like Latin Node."
| THE 100: COMPOSITION/PERFORMANCE, BY INDUSTRY | ||||
| Industry | number of companies | 2003 revenues*($M) | % of total revenues** | Total revenue growth ($M) 1999–2003*** |
| Construction | 23 | $1,702.02 | 24.28% | $1,266.04 |
| Retail | 3 | $1,370.50 | 19.55% | $1,225.09 |
| Service | 53 | $1,620.17 | 23.11% | $1,216.81 |
| Wholesale | 7 | $713.85 | 10.18% | $610.90 |
| Manufacturing | 5 | $586.09 | 8.36% | $410.98 |
| Automotive | 1 | $497.20 | 7.09% | $384.22 |
| Finance | 6 | $458.90 | 6.55% | $334.35 |
| Transportation | 2 | $60.49 | 0.09% | $43.86 |
| Total | 100 | $7,009.22 | 100.00% | $5,492.24 |
| *Gross revenue is rounded. ** Percentages of revenues for top 100 companies are rounded up, including total. ***Growth figures are based on actual revenues for accuracy. ©2004 Hispanic Business Inc. Reprinting, copying or transmitting all or part of this information requires written permission. | ||||
