GHC Makes Baton Rouge Business Report's Top 100 Private Companies List
Jul 06, 2023
Top 100 Private Companies continued to see post-pandemic revenue growth despite growing economic uncertainty at the national level.
Full steam ahead
Baton Rouge Business Report - By JR Ball - July 4, 2023
Riding strong out of the pandemic as 2022 began, this year’s Top 100 Private Companies brushed aside rising interest rates, banking sector turmoil and recession worries to post another strong year.
Led once again by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana and its $4.58 billion in revenue, the companies on this year’s Top 100 Private Companies list collectively posted $29.9 billion in 2022 revenue, up roughly 9.4% from 2021. This is likely to be the final appearance on the Top 100 list for Blue Cross and Blue Shield as its acquisition by Indianapolis-based Elevance Health is expected to close later this year.
The top 5 remained stable, with Raising Cane’s ($3.2B, up 33%), Turner Industries ($2.45B, up 3.5%) and Performance Contractors ($1.51B, up 30.6%) repeating in the 2-3-4 spots. MMR Group Inc. moved into the 5th spot, posting $967 million in 2022 revenue, up 25.9%. Half of the companies in this year’s top 10 are in the industrial construction sector.
The number of companies that saw year-over-year revenue gains in 2022 grew to 72 on this year’s list, up from 60 a year ago. The average percentage gain among winners was 28.24%, up nearly 8 percentage points from last year’s group. Companies experiencing a year-over-year revenue decline dropped to 25, from 30 a year ago. Retreaters saw an average percentage decline of 10.03%, down slightly from last year’s Top 100.
There were 34 Top 100 companies with revenue growth of 25% or higher in 2022, up from 20 the previous year. The biggest winner was Genesis 360 LLC, with the maintenance and construction company seeing revenue growth of 192.97% to $25.85 million.
One potential sign of alarm: 12 companies on this year’s list experienced a revenue decline of 10% or higher, up from just three a year ago. Still, that’s far below the 27 double-digit retreaters in 2020, during the peak of government mandates aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Among 120 top local executives on the year’s Top 100 list, only nine—or 7.5%—are women. Hardly a number to celebrate, but it is one higher than a year ago even with the departure of Leah Salsbury Duval, who sold her Dodge dealership. The Capital Region could once say it was on par with the rest of the nation … but no more. This year, for the first time, the number of female CEOs on both the Fortune 500 (public companies) and Forbes 500 (private companies) lists surpassed 10%, at 10.4% and 10.6%, respectively.
To be eligible for the Top 100 list, a company must be headquartered in the 9-parish Capital Region. East Baton Rouge Parish is home to the largest number of Top 100 companies with 92, followed by Ascension (10), West Baton Rouge (4), Livingston (3) and Iberville (1) parishes.