Florida Is in First : California Falls Behind Sunshine State as Base for Top Latino Firms, Magazine Survey Finds

Florida has surpassed California as home to the biggest number of medium and large Latino firms, according to a recent ranking of Latino businesses nationwide.

Florida claims 121 of the nation’s 500 largest Latino-owned firms listed in the June issue of Hispanic Business magazine. California, which had perennially led Florida in the rankings since their inception in 1984, placed second with 116 firms.

“It does say something (about) the vigor and the importance of Florida companies,” said Hispanic Business publisher Jesus Chavarria. But, he said, “I think that this will be an anomaly and that we will see California companies bounce back.”

The combined 1988 sales of the 500 firms totaled $8.3 billion, a 2.5% increase from the previous year. The firms must be at least 51% Latino-owned and have sales of more than $2.2 million to be considered in the ranking.

Food and beverage companies dominate the list. Four of the five top firms--including No. 1 ranked Bacardi Imports with sales of $500 million--fall into the food and beverage category. Eight of the 10 largest employers are also food companies.

Bacardi is headquartered in Miami, home to four of the 10 largest Latino firms. In fact, eight of the 20 largest companies are based in Florida.

In contrast, only one California company--Galindo Financial Corp. of Bell, showed up in the top 20. Galindo’s revenue of $120 million represents the value of the property sold by real estate agents for Galindo, which was ranked No. 8 nationwide.

California lost its lock on first-place ranking despite the fact that the Golden State’s Latino’s population is about four times larger than Florida’s. However, Florida’s Latinos--who are primarily from Cuba--tend to be wealthier, better educated and more established than Latinos of mostly Mexican origin in California. As a result, Latinos in Florida tend to have a better chance of setting up and operating a business than those in California, marketing experts say.

For example, the average household income for Latinos in south Florida is $31,000, compared to $25,000 for the Los Angeles area, according to Miami-based Strategic Resources, a research firm. Also, 40% of south Florida Latinos are classified as white-collar workers, which includes business owners, compared to 30% in Los Angeles. Latinos in south Florida have lived in the United States an average of 14 years, compared to 11 years for their Southern California counterparts.

Have the Experience

“Quite a few of them have had experience in setting up a business in Cuba,” said Ling Hsu, an information specialist at Strategy Research Corp., of Florida’s Cubans. “They probably are more adapted to the business environment in the United States.”

“It’s directly related to the immigrants,” said Jorge Hernandez, project director at Research Resources, a market research firm in Agoura Hills. “Cuban immigrants seem to be more middle class (and many owned) businesses in Cuba. Mexicans, in large part, are from the lower socioeconomic strata of society. This is the main difference.”

Chavarria says he sees a growing rivalry between Latino-owned businesses in California and Florida.

“As the national Hispanic community becomes more integrated economically and politically,” Chavarria said, “you can expect a natural process of competitiveness will ensue.”

THE LARGEST LATINO-OWNED FIRMS IN CALIFORNIA

Based on 1988 sales

‘88 Sales Company/city Type of business (millions) Galindo Financial, Bell real estate sales $118.1* Rosendin Electric, electric contractor 71.0 San Jose Lloyd A. Wise Cos., auto dealerships 60.2 Oakland Komfort Industries, travel trailer/ 60.0 Riverside motor homes La Reina Cos., food maker 53.2 Los Angeles TELACU, Los Angeles community 51.0 Angel Echevarria Co., flotation mattresses 46.5 Los Angeles development Infotec Development, high-technology 45.0 Santa Ana engineering Ramos Oil Co., West petroleum products 42.7 Sacramento distributor Ruiz Food Products, Tulare food maker 42.0

*Represents property sales in which Galindo acted as broker.

Source: Hispanic Business magazine

THE LARGEST LATINO-OWNED FIRMS

Nationwide, based on 1988 sales.

‘88 Sales Company/city Type of business (millions) Bacardi Imports, Miami rum/wine importer $500.0 Goya Foods, Secaucus, N.J. food maker 300.0 Sedano’s Supermarkets, Miami supermarkets 175.8 Van Dyke Dodge, Warren, Mich. auto dealerships 174.2 Handy Andy Supermarkets, San Antonio supermarkets 166.0 Gus Machado Enterprises, Hialeah, Fla. auto dealerships 139.8 Frank Parra Chevrolet, Irving, Tex. auto dealerships 125.0 Galindo Financial, Bell real estate sales 118.1* Related Cos. of Florida, Miami real estate development 116.0 Republic National Bank of Miami, Miami commercial banking 109.4

*Represents property sales in which Galindo acted as broker.

Source: Hispanic Business magazine