Top Black-Owned Firms’ Sales Rise 10%

NEW YORK â€”  The 100 top-grossing black-owned businesses had revenue of $7.9 billion last year, representing a 10.4% increase over 1990 sales of $7.2 billion, according to Black Enterprise magazine’s 20th Annual Report on Black Business.

Research on the 100 companies, all in the industrial and service sectors, is done by Black Enterprise and reviewed by independent accountants.

The top grossing company was New York-based TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc., a food processing and distribution company. It had 1991 sales of $1.5 billion.

Barden Communications Inc. of Detroit was named company of the year.

Barden, whose primary businesses are running the nation’s 63rd-largest cable television system and real estate, had total revenue of $91.2 million last year, up 6.5%. The company was hailed for thriving in a weak year, when gross sales for the nation’s largest industrial corporations fell by 1.8%.

Johnson Publishing Co. Inc., a Chicago-based publishing, broadcasting and personal-grooming products company, was the second-largest grossing company, with revenue of $261.4 million. Johnson publishes Ebony and Jet magazines.

The other top 10 companies were Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Co.; H. J. Russell & Co., an Atlanta construction and food services company; Garden State Cable TV, of Cherry Hill, N.J.; Soft Sheen Products Inc., a Chicago hair products manufacturer; RMS Technologies Inc., a Marlton, N.J., computer and technical services company; Stop Shop and Save, a Baltimore supermarket company, and the Bing Group, a Detroit steel processing and metal stamping distribution company.

In order to qualify for the Black Enterprise 100s list, a company must be at least 51% black-owned.

The magazine also compiles separate annual lists of the top 100 black-owned automotive dealerships, the top 25 black-owned banks and savings and loan associations and the top 15 black-owned insurance companies.

The reports are in Black Enterprise’s June issue, which goes on newsstands May 26.

The magazine’s editor, Earl G. Graves, noted that the gains were made despite the recession and other obstacles. “The past 20 years have seen a phenomenal growth in the number and variety of black-owned businesses in this country,� he said.

“During this same period, these companies have overcome two recessions, a sharp decline of procurement opportunities in the private sector, a retrenchment of set-aside programs in the public sector and a resurgence of negative feelings and attitudes toward African-Americans in general,� Graves said.

Black-owned businesses remain small in size and revenue compared to U.S. businesses overall.

TLC Beatrice International, the top-grossing black business, would rank about No. 258 in the 1992 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. industrial corporations.

Among the 100 industrial companies and the 100 auto dealerships, 22 companies were in Michigan; 19 in Illinois; 18 in California; 17 in New York; 12 in Virginia; 10 in Ohio; nine in Maryland, and eight in Georgia.