The 71 fastest-growing private companies in Orange County with revenues between $10 million and $99.9 million combined to grow their top line by 84% over two years for an estimated $2.4 billion.
The group makes up one of three lists in this week’s Special Report that collectively highlight 153 of the fastest-growing, privately held companies based in OC. Each company has had a 15%-or-larger increase in revenue over the past two years.
The lists are separated by revenue size for the 12-month span through June 30. Companies with revenues below $10 million are in the “small” category; those with revenues between $10 million and $99.9 million are in the “midsize” category; and those with $100 million and more are in the “large” category.
The “midsize” list is the longest and accounts for nearly half of the total number of companies.
Rankings are based on two-year percentage increases in revenues, comparing the recent 12-month span through June with the same period two years prior.
The lists include local employment figures, though they don’t affect the rankings. The midsize companies had 7,729 local employees as of June 30, up 69% from two years earlier.
• SETA International topped the list with a 2,547% increase in revenue to $22.5 million from $850,000 two years prior (see related story, page 5). The Costa Mesa-based company has five employees in OC, up from one two years earlier.
Big Gainers
Two other companies had quadruple-digit percentage gains: Irvine-based SearchMarketers.com, which is No. 2 on the list and had 2,161% growth to $15.6 million; and Irvine-based BigRentz.com, No. 3, which had a 1,226% increase to $24.7 million.
Telogis
• Aliso Viejo-based Telogis Inc. is the biggest among the midsize companies, with $98.6 million in recent annual revenue. It was up nearly 27% from two years earlier. Telogis, which provides cloud-based logistics software and services for truck fleets, had 146 local employees as of June 30, more than double from two years ago.
“We participate in a very large market that is very lightly penetrated and growing very fast,” said Telogis Chief Financial Officer Kyle Messman. “Enterprises are adopting solutions to manage their distributed mobile workforces and mobile assets, and Telogis’ growth can be attributed to this trend.”
He added that “a few other convergent factors [are] facilitating this growth, namely the maturity and ubiquity of the connectivity that is driving the expectation that everything will be connected and [be] a part of the Internet of Things.”
Growth also is fueled by “the industry shift to build commercial vehicles and equipment with our software already embedded at the factory level,” he said. “Our customers expect that the vehicles and the equipment they use for work will be connected at the time they purchase it, just as they do in their own passenger vehicles.”
Telogis is “meeting that demand [and] expectation” by partnering with automakers such as Ford, General Motors and Volvo, “so that our software comes built-in, and that has driven enormous growth.”
Challenges for Telogis has been in regard to “continuing to attract and retain the best people in the business,” Messman said. Our “assets are truly our people. Since we established the company more than 14 years ago, our growth and success has always been built on the talent and dedication of our people, so recruitment in all areas of Telogis remains a huge priority. The market for connected commercial vehicle technologies grows exponentially every year with huge customer demand, so our challenge is really just keeping up with that demand by having the best people to innovate, develop, and then bring our software applications to market.”
Solarrus
Eleven entries on this year’s midsize list have moved up from the “small” list. Those include Solarrus Corp. in Costa Mesa, an alternative energy services company.
• Solarrus, which jumped from No. 19 on the “small” list last year to No. 13 on the “midsize” list, saw its revenue grow 350% to $14.7 million from $3.3 million over the past two years.
• Real estate investment firm TwinRock Partners also jumped lists, landing at No. 10 on the “midsize” list with a 370% revenue increase to $12 million.
TwinRock, which has 11 employees in its sole office in Newport Beach, is engaged in the acquisition and redevelopment of commercial and residential properties.
Chief Executive and Investment Officer Alexander Philips said the firm is primarily focused on the Midwest region and select markets in the Western region—its locales range from Nevada to Oklahoma and Wisconsin—where it can tap into “more immediate cash flow.”
The firm, he said, tries “to stay away from coastal markets, where you’re [more likely depending on] appreciation and an exit.”
“At the forefront of our investment thesis is the belief that strong rent growth will be fueled by growing demand in markets with improving localized economies, strong wage-growth potential, and relatively flat supply,” Philips said, adding that TwinRock is looking to open an Oklahoma City office next year and bring in property management staff and back-office functions in-house.
The expansion is expected to boost TwinRock’s work force to about 75 by the end of 2016, Philips said.
Flame Broiler
• Santa Ana-based Flame Broiler Inc. landed at No. 62 on the “midsize” list after registering at No. 79 on the “small” list last year. The restaurant chain, which employs about 550 in Orange County, had 30% revenue growth over two years to $91.1 million.
• Ingardia Brothers Produce Inc., a Santa Ana-based distributor of produce, seafood and groceries, is the largest among the 28 newcomers to this year’s list. The company, which is No. 55 on the “midsize” list, had a 45% increase in revenue over two years to $90.7 million. It had 195 employees locally as of June 30, up by 30 from two years earlier.
“We’ve had very good growth, and it was attributed to a lot of things,” said co-owner Sam Ingardia, who said moving the operations into a bigger building in a consolidation effort and an improving economy have been key contributors to steady business growth over the past several years.
“Our move was February 2008. Before that we had a 25,000-square-foot building and another 15,000 square feet separately. Going into a 65,000-square-foot building under one roof made [operations] a lot easier,” he said. “It was slow during the recession, but it gave us an opportunity to reorganize and grow from there. So we had a little time to regroup, we had a bigger building under one roof, and of course the economy turned around.”
Ingardia said the company also increased its inventory and has been selling a bigger variety of products—produce, seafood and frozen foods, among others—to customers, which are primarily independently owned restaurants.
