This week’s list of the fastest-growing public companies based in Orange County offers a different view of business here.
It’s based on a percentage increase in revenue, with a minimum gain of 10% for the 12 months through June compared with the like period two years ago.
The two-year look requires some staying power—the companies on this year’s list all had to come through the recent recession with strong sales increases. It also favors smaller companies, who often show big percentage gains from relatively small starting points.
The top spot on this year’s list goes to a maker of water filters with $5 million in annual revenue (see story, page 30). There are plenty of other small companies that made the list based on impressive increases against a modest base.
Then there are the companies that start high and still manage the necessary growth rate.
This year’s list includes seven companies with $1 billion or more for the 12 months through June: disk drive maker Western Digital Corp., at $9.5 billion, with a 27.8% increase; precious metals trader Spectrum Group International Inc., ($7.2 billion, 68%); chipmaker Broadcom Corp., ($7.4 billion, 70.5%); for-profit college operator Corinthian Colleges Inc. ($1.9 billion, 43.7%); medical device maker Edwards Lifesciences Corp. ($1.6 billion. 24.9%); TTM Technologies Inc., a circuit board maker ($1.4 billion, 129.5%) and Allergan Inc. ($5.2 billion; 21.3%).
The reasons behind the revenue growth of these larger companies are varied.
Western Digital has maintained a strong pace of shipments and a market-share lead on a unit basis for disk drives. That performance came as it readies to reshape the competitive landscape with a pending acquisition of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Ltd.
Broadcom and TTM can trace chunks of their growth to acquisitions. Broadcom has made notable gains on top of acquisitions thanks in part to its chips for consumer electronics, including devices from Apple Inc.
TTM made a major acquisition that brought a big gain in revenue, Edwards Lifesciences saw gains mostly on continued growth of sales of its conventional heart valves worldwide and the less-invasive Edwards Sapien, which is on the market in Europe and awaiting approval here.
Corinthian Colleges saw increases in revenue even as it struggled with increased regulatory scrutiny that has clipped earnings. Allergan’s gain came on continued strong sales of its Botox product and others.
All of that has been, and will continue to be, covered by the Business Journal on a regular basis.
This issue is dedicated largely to the fastest-growing public companies, large and small. There is an overview of the list and other related stories on page 1, more in this Special Section, and the list itself, staring on page 32.
Here’s some additional perspective on how these bigger companies figure into the mix: Western Digital’s gain in sales on the two-year comparison comes to $2.1 billion. That’s more than seven times the total revenue for the top five fastest growers on this year’s list.
