Revenue at the largest minority-owned businesses with headquarters in Orange County climbed almost 10% to $18.7 billion last year, led by acquisitions, mortgages and granite countertops.
This week’s Business Journal list features 78 companies that are at least 51% owned by minorities, including Latin-Americans, African-Americans and Asian-Americans per federal guidelines for designations of minority status.
The entries are ranked by 2016 revenue, with a $5 million minimum. Other data on the list, such as locally based and companywide employees, didn’t affect the rankings.
The total number of OC employees at the companies increased 2.1% to 13,616. They employed 145,629 worldwide.
• Our annual list of minority-owned businesses keeps growing and this year includes five new companies, led by loanDepot.com LLC, a Foothill Ranch-based lender launched in 2010 by Anthony Hsieh, who’s chief executive.
“What we’ve accomplished in seven years is really something special and extremely rewarding,” Hsieh said in a statement on his company’s website marking $100 billion in fundings since its founding. “loanDepot has grown into a powerful national brand that challenges the status quo of traditional banking every day.”
• Another quickly growing lender is Tustin-based New American Funding, where revenue climbed 26% to $477.6 million. The company, which originates and services home loans, grew employment 14% to 2,381 and by 3.4% in OC to 865. Its website says it increases productivity by using mobile applications based on proprietary software.
• The top two companies remained in their respective rankings: Kingston Technology Co. in Fountain Valley at No. 1, and Vizio Inc. in Irvine at No. 2.
Kingston, which makes computer products, generated an estimated $6.6 billion in the 2016 calendar year, up from $6.5 billion in 2015. We estimated Vizio, which designs and sells televisions, audio products and other consumer electronics products, recorded $3.5 billion, essentially flat.
• Revenue at Irvine-based Alorica Inc., No. 3, more than doubled to $2.4 billion after it acquired Expert Global Solutions of Plano, Texas, last June on undisclosed terms. While the company employs 87 workers in OC, it has about 100,000 worldwide providing services such as call centers in 30 languages to more than 600 clients in a dozen countries.
• No. 5, Orange-based M S International Inc., which sells granite, boosted revenue 18% to $899.5 million. Indian immigrants Manu Shah and his wife, Rika, started the firm in the 1970s in their basement in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
• The biggest employee increase in Orange County occurred at No. 34, Mobovida LLC, which now employs 110, up from 41. Revenue at the Fullerton-based online accessories company climbed 90% to $26 million.
• No. 42, Fullerton-based Prince Organization reported the biggest revenue drop among ranked companies, falling 56% to $17.6 million. Its companywide headcount fell 37% to 712, a number that includes nine employees in OC.
The company sold four hotels last year in order to buy larger and more profitable hotels this year, CEO Sunil Tolani said in an interview.
“I sold the small hotels and just closed on some big hotels,” said Tolani, who now owns nine hotels. “My numbers again will make a dramatic jump this year and be higher than in the past.”
• Two companies with substantial revenue fell off the list after being sold. DSS Staffing Inc., with $32 million in sales in 2015, moved its headquarters from Brea to Georgia. Orange-based J.L. Patterson & Associates Inc. was sold to Jacobs Engineering Group.
Among companies with notable revenue increases were:
• Ahtna Design-Build Inc. in Irvine, which a year ago projected $10 million in revenue, actually doubled sales to $12.3 million, ranked No. 53. The company has contracts with federal agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and with various commercial clients.
• Revenue at the No. 10 Irvine-based Bascom Group LLC, a real estate investment trust specializing in distressed properties, climbed 20% to $259 million. It made its biggest-ever acquisition last year when it partnered with Oaktree Capital Management LP to pay $630 million for a 5,000-unit portfolio of rental properties in and around Las Vegas.
