Despite the general economic woes suffered by the industry during the past year, more than half of this year’s Big50 actually did more business in 2010 than in the previous two years (see Two-Year Growth Rate, above). That’s not to say that companies that shrank in size were slacking off; in fact, the five-year average net profit of 6.9% for companies under $1 million was higher than that of any other revenue category.
A comparison of the last five Big50 classes shows an overall annual revenue fluctuation of about $2 million, but relatively stable margins (see the Profitability chart). Net profit of 7.1% in 2010 is up a half-point over 2009 but lags behind the 9.9% high of 2006. Employee numbers have remained steady (see Productivity).
—Sal Alfano, editorial director, REMODELING.
This is a longer version of an article that appeared in the May 2011 issue of REMODELING.
