Annual Survey Of 75 Largest Private Arkansas Companies Shows Growth

Arkansas Business released its annual survey of the 75 largest private companies in the state in this week's issue, finding improving revenues and that many companies are making expensions.

Four new companies qualified to make the list: Summerwood Partners, Ritter & Co., Douglas Cos. and ABC Financial.

The 75 largest private companies in Arkansas generated total revenue — self-reported and estimated — of $31.15 billion in their most recent fiscal years, and the price of entry to the list was $88.8 million.

Both of those figures represent healthy improvements from last year’s list, when the companies generated total revenue of barely more than $30 billion and $76 million was enough to make the cut.

Never an exact science, the list is topped by probably the least reliable figure: an estimate of $2.25 billion for Stephens Inc., the Little Rock financial conglomerate owned by Warren Stephens. But most of the revenue figures — 61 out of 75 on this year’s list — come directly from the companies, including four companies that had never before participated in the survey.

The companies occupying the first 11 spots on the list are unchanged from last year. Nos. 2 through 8 self-reported revenue of $1 billion or more last year, one fewer than on last year’s list. Bruce Oakley Inc., the North Little Rock bulk transportation company, which barely cracked the billion-dollar mark during the fiscal year that ended in September 2012, dropped back just below that mark with $950.6 million in revenue in fiscal 2013.

You can read the full story by Arkansas Business here and listen to an interview with editor Gwen Moritz above.