Thirty-one new companies make their debut this year -- for many, thanks to exceptional growth. At No. 115 is one such company, MoreDirect, a Boca Raton-based facilitator of IT product sales. Concentrating its efforts on large corporations and government agencies, the company's revenues jumped by more than 360% in 2000.
A few notable companies are gone this year. Celotex Corp., the Tampa-based building materials manufacturer, shut down in July with the sale of its last remaining business divisions to Dow Chemical. The demise of last year's No. 16 company, which generated $609 million in revenues only two years ago, was the result of years of asbestos litigation lawsuits that forced the company to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in claims. Meanwhile, Mutual Wholesale Co. and Parkway Food Service, two food distribution companies ranked No. 49 and No. 188 respectively last year, were both bought by U.S. Foodservice, a subsidiary of Dutch food retailer Royal Ahold.
Florida Trend's list includes only privately held Florida-based companies. Subsidiaries, divisions and other holdings of out-of-state companies were not considered. In most cases, company representatives provided the information used in the rankings. Florida Trend assumes the information is accurate and truthful. Some estimates were obtained through staff research. Companies that did not provide sufficient information were omitted.
Top 25 Private Companies in Florida
A complete list of the top 200 private companies, including additional information about each company, is available only in the print edition. To subscribe to Florida Trend, click here.
RankCompany2000 Revenue (000s)Senior Executive1Publix Super Markets Inc., Lakeland$14,600,000Charles Jenkins Jr.2JM Family Enterprises Inc., Deerfield Beach7,200,000Pat Moran3Adventist Health System, Winter Park2,521,000Thomas L. Werner4George E. Warren Corp., Vero Beach2,350,522Thomas L. Corr5NASCAR, Daytona Beach2,000,000 (E)Mike Helton6Purity Wholesale Grocers Inc., Boca Raton1,600,000Sal Ricciardi7Breed Technologies Inc., Lakeland1,422,000John M. Riess8EPIX Holdings Corp., Tampa1,300,000T. Taylor,S. Rosenthal8Planet Automotive Group, Coral Gables1,300,000R. Potamkin,A. Potamkin10Rooms To Go, Seffner1,040,000Jeffrey Seaman11Abbey Carpet Company Inc., Bonita Springs1,000,000 (E)Phil Gutierrez12Ed Morse Automotive Group, Fort Lauderdale955,923Edward J. Morse Sr.13Southern Wine & Spirits of Florida, Miami950,000Harvey R. Chaplin14WCI Communities Inc., Bonita Springs882,152Alfred Hoffman Jr.15Codina Group Inc., Coral Gables799,000Armando Codina16Colorado Boxed Beef Co., Auburndale740,000Bryan Saterbo17Orius Corp., West Palm Beach735,153William J. Mercurio18Vitality Beverages Inc., Tampa660,000Robert A. Peiser19Scotty's Inc., Winter Haven650,000Tom Morris20Baptist Health Systems of South Fla., Coral Gables639,329Brian E. Keeley21Gate Petroleum Co., Jacksonville615,000Herbert H. Peyton22Florida's Natural Growers, Lake Wales605,000Stephen M. Caruso23Morgan Tire & Auto, Clearwater577,000Larry Morgan24Lazy Days RV Center Inc., Seffner556,122Don Wallace25The Haskell Co., Jacksonville551,000Steven T. HalversonResearch by Davis Kilgroe and Costa Tsiokos. Ranked by 2000 revenue. (E)=Florida Trend Estimate. Copyright 2001 by Trend Magazines Inc.