When it comes to fast-growing companies, no other industry in Orange County can touch the burgeoning tech sector.
On this year’s Business Journal list of fastest-growing public companies, ranked by three-year revenue growth, you have to read down to No. 10, subprime lender New Century Financial Inc., to find a company clearly outside of the tech orbit.
Of the 70 firms on the list, nearly half,34,are tech or tech-related, ranging from chip-making behemoth No. 2 Broadcom Corp. to computer hardware and software makers and distributors, data systems managers, medical device makers, specialty materials makers and even No. 15 New Horizons Worldwide Inc., a leading operator of technical training centers.
Of course, any list of fastest-growing firms tends to favor smaller companies, since they’re starting from a smaller base and ramping up sales to establish themselves. But in Orange County, the elephants are charging, too. Broadcom is far and away county’s largest company by market capitalization, at more than $52 billion late last week. And OC’s two largest companies by revenue, Santa Ana-based electronics distributor Ingram Micro Inc. and Orange-based drug distributor Bergen Brunswig Corp. (see story on page 29) are Nos. 30 and 31, respectively, with three year revenue growth rates of more than 100%. No. 19 Fidelity National Financial Inc., Irvine, with revenue of $1.8 billion in the 2000 period, acquired Chicago Title Co. to become the nation’s largest title insurer.
The top five firms are: No. 1 Micro General Corp., a Santa Ana-based financial software company that also was No. 1 last year, up 5,730% (see story on page 28); Irvine-based Broadcom, up 3,135%; No. 3 McGlen Internet Group, Tustin, up 2,333% (see story on page 44); No. 4 Starbase Corp., a Web-design software maker, up 1,705% (see story on page 45); and No. 5 Aspeon Inc., Irvine, an applications service provider and maker of touch-screen retail systems for the food service industry, up 1,448%.
Among the top 20 companies, 14 are tech or tech-related, including semiconductor manufacturer QLogic Corp., Aliso Viejo, at No. 13; software firms No. 9 Emergent Information Technologies Inc., Newport Beach, and No. 12 Epicor Software Corp., Irvine; telescope maker No. 17 Meade Instruments Corp., Irvine (see story on page 33); and metal-composite manufacturer No. 6 Alyn Corp., Irvine (see story on page 46.)
Of the remaining six firms in the top 20, two are in the financial sector, Irvine-based New Century and No. 14 Onyx Acceptance Corp., Foothill Ranch, which makes auto loans and securitizes them.
Two others in the top 20 are real estate-related: Fidelity National and No. 20 Standard Pacific Corp., Costa Mesa, a residential builder.
Rounding out the top 20, No. 16 Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., Anaheim, which makes and sells beach attire (see story on page 34), and No. 17 Sicor Inc., Irvine, is a pharmaceutical firm.
The list compares revenue for the 12 months ended June 30, 1997, with revenue for the same period ended in 2000. The companies have to have been public since 1998 and have reported revenue as far back as the third quarter of 1996. The list ranks New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and AMEX issues; it does not include companies traded over-the-counter.
The 70 companies increased their aggregate revenue to $86.6 billion, about double their revenue for the 1997 period. The fastest growing 25 boosted their aggregate revenue 195%, to $8.8 billion.
The 70 companies also are adding jobs, but at a lesser rate. The 70 firms on the list grew their company-wide workforces 21% over the past year, to a total of 165,534 jobs. The fastest 25 increased their employee counts much more in the past year, 70% altogether, to 50,891.
In Orange County, the 70 fastest employ 35,603, which was 14% more than they did a year ago. The fastest 25 once again added jobs at a higher percentage rate, up 36% to 8,624 jobs. By comparison, the county’s total employment grew 2.6% to 1.465 million during the same period. The 4,387 jobs created in OC at the fastest-growing 70 firms were 11.8% of the 37,000 jobs added countywide in the past year.
In terms of employment, the fastest-growing company-wide were: No. 32 netGuru Inc., Yorba Linda, up 1,026% to 394 employees; Broadcom, up 274% to 1,737 employees; and No. 8 Powerwave Technologies, Irvine, up 219% to 1,596 employees.
The companies hiring the most in Orange County were: Powerwave, up 235%, to 1,508 employees; Pacific Sunwear, up 153% to 400 employees; and Broadcom, up 90% to 660 employees.
Half the top 10 firms on this year’s list were not on last year’s. They’re riding big gains in the past year. Broadcom, McGlen and Aspeon debuted with a bullet in the top 5, and Emergent and New Century also went straight to the top 10 this year.
Six of the top 10 fast-growing companies on last year’s list don’t appear on this year’s list because of mergers, relocation or steep declines in revenue growth: former No. 2 Electropure Inc. of Laguna Hills; former No. 3 NAB Asset Corp. of Mission Viejo; former No. 5 Santa Barbara Restaurant Group of Anaheim; former No. 7 Western Bancorp of Newport Beach; former No. 9 Sunstone Hotel Investors of San Clemente; and former No. 10 BNC Mortgage Inc. of Irvine.
Quickly climbing up the list from last year’s were several large and well-known firms that also had big increases in the past 12 months: Emulex Corp., Costa Mesa, up 43 spots to No. 29; Oakley Inc., Foothill Ranch, up 35 spots to No. 50; WFS Financial Inc., Irvine, up 29 spots to No. 41; Health Care Property Investors Inc., Newport Beach, up 28 spots to No. 23 (see story on page 31); Newport Corp. of Irvine, up 27 spots to No. 58; FileNET Co. of Costa Mesa, up 24 spots to No. 53; and QLogic, up 21 spots to No. 13.
Conversely, many companies dropped down the list, reflecting the short-lived nature of growth spurts in the 100%-plus-per-year range. They include: IMPAC Mortgage Holdings Inc. of Newport Beach, down 39 spots to No. 55; ARV Assisted Living Inc. of Costa Mesa, down 28 spots to No. 57; I-Flow Corp. of Lake Forest, down 16 spots to No. 43; Chicago Pizza & Brewery Inc. of Mission Viejo, down 15 spots to No. 39, and PacifiCare Health Systems Inc. of Santa Ana, down 14 spots to No. 49.
But these companies didn’t post the steepest declines in revenue. Among the biggest revenue declines posted by OC public companies were: California Coastal Communities, Irvine, down 87.4% to $7.5 million; Western Digital Corp., Irvine, down 53% to $1.958 billion; Apria Healthcare Group, Costa Mesa, down 17.3% to $983 million; and Fluor Corp., Aliso Viejo, down 16.8% to $11.3 billion. The biggest decline was 108.7% by Consumer Portfolio Services Inc. A company declining more than 100% in revenue is an oddity. Consumer Portfolio reports lost contracts as negative revenue, posting a negative $5.5 million in revenue for the 12 months ended June 30. A more complete list of revenue decliners is on page 47.
For a five-year period, the biggest revenue gainer again is Micro General, at 2,018% growth, followed by ARV with 1,005% growth and Biolase Technology Inc., San Clemente, with 739% growth. A larger list of biggest five-year revenue increases is on page 42.
The biggest growth in just the past year came by way of FutureLink Corp., Irvine, which posted a 1,026% growth to $66 million. Other high fliers this past year: McGlen, up 623% to $20.8 million; Litronic Inc., Irvine, up 441% to $41 million; and TriZetto Group Inc., Newport Beach, up 254% to $44.6 million. A longer list of biggest one-year gains is on page 41.
Irvine easily claims the title as home of the fastest growing companies: 21 of the 70 firms on the list are headquartered in that city. Newport Beach follows with 10 companies, Santa Ana, eight; Costa Mesa and Anaheim, six each, Foothill Ranch, three; and Tustin, Orange, San Clemente and Aliso Viejo with two each. Garden Grove, Huntington Beach, Yorba Linda, Fullerton, Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Fountain Valley and Brea each have one of the companies on the list. n
