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By Cindy Barth – Editor, Orlando Business Journal
This week, Orlando Business Journal celebrates the achievements of Central Florida’s 100 largest privately held companies.
These firms, honored at a Sept. 20 luncheon at the Hilton Orlando, demonstrate what’s excellent about Central Florida, while also boosting the region’s economy. Locally based businesses compete annually to be named one of the Golden 100, based on gross revenue for the most recent year-end.
Combined revenue for this year’s Golden 100 was $11.19 billion, up 11.5 percent from last year’s combined revenue of $10.03 billion.
And two local firms once again topped the billion-dollar threshold in revenue.
Here’s the breakdown by industry:
- A total of 30 firms on OBJ’s Golden 100 list are professional service businesses, the category with the highest combined revenue on this year’s list. These firms had combined revenue of $4.08 billion, led by No. 1-ranked Greenway Automotive, which reported $2.34 billion in 2017 revenue.
- Forty-one construction-related firms made the list and posted the second-largest combined revenue total at $3.12 billion. The category leader for 2018 is Wharton-Smith Inc. with $372.81 million in revenue.
- The tourism and hospitality industry had eight companies with combined revenue of $2.52 billion, led by No. 2-ranked Westgate Resorts, which once again joined the Golden 100’s billion-dollar club by posting $1.19 billion in revenue.
- The manufacturing category surged, with five companies reporting a combined $98.03 million in revenue. The category leader is Certified Slings Inc. with $25.61 million in 2017 revenue.
- Five real estate firms made OBJ’s Golden 100 list in 2018, led by No. 19 Park Square Enterprises LLC, which had $136.43 million in revenue. The real estate category’s combined revenue was $334.44 million.
- Technology, a seven-firm category this year, posted $235.47 million in combined 2017 revenue, led by Smart City Holdings with $128.47 million.
- Wholesalers — just a one-company category this year — was represented by Sunniland Corp. with revenue of $175.18 million.
- And last, but certainly not least, the two-company agribusiness industry had combined revenue of $582.83 million, led once again by No. 4-ranked A. Duda & Sons Inc. with $519 million in revenue.
Read more on the Top 10 companies; the Fast-Track Five; and the Ultimate Newcomers below and in the Sept. 21, 2018, print edition. See the Golden 100 companies’ full profiles online at OrlandoBusinessJournal.com.
Top 10
Ultimate Newcomers
Fast-Track Five
(percentage of revenue growth, 2016-2017)
How it works
To qualify for the Golden 100, companies must be based in Orange, Seminole, Osceola or Lake counties, and can’t be a subsidiary of a firm headquartered outside Central Florida.
Data is gathered from hundreds of local firms to determine their place on the list. Next, we calculate the percentage of year-over-year change in company revenue to find out which firms are the Fast-Track Five. Then we compare this year’s list to all of OBJ’s previous ones to see which firms are new to the list, and those comprise the Ultimate Newcomers.
