When BLACK ENTERPRISE first compiled its Top 100 in 1973, combined sales for the component companies (which comprised an array of industrial/service firms and auto dealers) totaled $473 million. Today, the top 100 African American industrial/service companies and 100 leading auto dealers the core of our BE 100’s collectively grossed more than $28 billion.
The phenomenal growth of these companies and the business-altering developments among the nation’s largest black advertising agencies and financial services companies mark the evolution of black business over the past four decades. And these companies will need to demonstrate even greater dexterity in the years ahead as BE 100s CEOs face the competitive pressures, shifting consumer demands, and sweeping industrial changes of an unmerciful environment. Their business mandate: adapt or die.
BE 100s SALES BY INDUSTRY |
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Auto Dealers | 31.1% | $8,931.575 | |
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Other | 13.8% | $3,958.298 | |
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Manufacturing | 13.7% | $3,941.299 | |
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Technology | 11.2% | $3,227.371 | |
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Food & Beverage | 9.2% | $2,660.434 | |
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Energy | 6.1% | $1,753.862 | |
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Media | 4.5% | $1,304.107 | |
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Construction | 3.4% | $973.085 | |
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Transportation | 2.9% | $827.534 | |
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Computer/Office Products | 1.8% | $509.239 | |
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Security or Janitorial Maint. | 0.9% | $271.148 | |
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Telecommunications | 0.5% | $152.707 | |
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Entertainment | 0.4% | $105.000 | |
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Healthcare | 0.3% | $98.928 | |
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Healthcare & Beauty Aids | 0.2% | $48.000 | |