The Difference a Year Makes : Firms’ Fortunes Shift in Rankings of Top 12
The rankings of the biggest companies in the San Fernando Valley area have been reshuffled.
To be sure, Lockheed, the Burbank-based defense and aerospace giant, remains by far the largest company with headquarters in the area. But every other public company among the area’s top dozen, ranked by revenue for the last fiscal year, is either up or down from a year ago.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. April 3, 1986 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday April 3, 1986 Valley Edition Business Part 4 Page 2 Column 3 Financial Desk 1 inches; 19 words Type of Material: Correction
A chart in Tuesday’s Valley Business pages incorrectly reported Lockheed’s net income for 1985. The correct amount is $401 million.
In part, that has happened because several firms that were leaders last year no longer qualify as locally based public companies. Familian--a Van Nuys supplier of plumbing and building products, which was ranked No. 8 a year ago--went private.
1 Moved, 1 Was Dissolved
Summit Health, a hospital and nursing-home concern that was 10th a year ago, relocated its headquarters from Studio City to Century City. Informatics General, a Woodland Hills-based software maker that was No. 11 last year, was dissolved after being acquired by Sterling Software of Dallas.
The rankings also were shaken by the declining fortunes of some companies. Olson Industries of Sherman Oaks, No. 12 a year ago, fell from the top dozen in part because weak egg prices hurt its egg-distribution business.
Tandon, a Chatsworth-based maker of disk drives and personal computers, slipped from fourth to eighth largely because of the computer-industry slump that sabotaged its financial performance.
Another computer-industry company, Dataproducts, managed to edge up from fifth to fourth on the strength of an 18% increase in sales. The Woodland Hills-based maker of computer printers benefited, however, from having a 1985 fiscal year that ended last March 31, before the industry slump reached its depths.
20th Century Industries, the Woodland Hills parent of 20th Century Insurance, moved up from ninth to seventh in the rankings because of a 34% revenue increase. House of Fabrics, a Sherman Oaks-based retailer, inched up from seventh to sixth with a 3% sales gain.
Disney, MCA Trade Places
The Valley’s two $2 billion-a-year entertainment companies, Universal City-based MCA and Burbank-based Walt Disney, traded places in the newest survey simply because No. 2-ranked MCA grew a little faster than No. 3-ranked Disney, although Disney had higher earnings.
Brisk growth catapulted four companies to top-12 stature: Zenith National Insurance of Encino, up from 13th to ninth; Micom Systems, a Simi Valley-based maker of data communications equipment, which rose from 14th to 10th; Nu-Med, an Encino-based hospital chain that climbed from 15th to 11th, and Newhall Land & Farming, a Valencia-based real estate and agriculture partnership, which moved from 18th to 12th.
In general, this year’s top 12 companies are bigger than last year’s. For example, Newhall Land was No. 12 this year with 1985 revenue of $152.3 million; Olson held the same position last year with 1984 revenue of $146.6 million. Lockheed kept its top ranking this year while enjoying a 17.5% increase in revenue to $9.5 billion.
Not far behind this year’s top 12 was Superior Industries, a Van Nuys maker of auto wheels, with revenue of $130.8 million. After Superior was Zero Corp., a Burbank cabinetmaker with $117.2 million in sales, followed by Olson, with sales of $115.6 million.
Next came three companies with revenues hovering close to $110 million: TransTechnology, a Sherman Oaks-based defense and aerospace company; Redken Laboratories, a Canoga Park-based maker of hair- and skin-care products, and Computer Memories, a Chatsworth-based disk drive manufacturer.
THE VALLEY’S BIGGEST PUBLIC COMPANIES
In millions of dollars for 1985 fiscal years, unless indicated
1984 Revenue Net Income Ranking (Loss) 1. Lockheed 1 $9,535.0 $733.7 2. MCA 3 2,098.5 150.0 3. Disney 2 2,015.4 173.5 4. Dataproducts 5 471.3 27.7 5. Valley Federal 6 316.2 10.4 6. House of Fabrics* 7 286.7 NA 7. Tandon 4 268.8 (135.4) 8. 20th Century 9 ---- ---- 9. Zenith National 13 230.3 3.4 10. Micom 14 193.3 25.7 11. Nu-Med 15 169.6 8.7 12. Newhall Land 18 152.3 37.5**
* Revenue for 1986 fiscal year ended Jan. 31. Net income not yet disclosed.
** Newhall Land & Farming, a partnership, reports pre-tax, rather than net, income.
