Sunny State of Affairs : Florida’s Latino Firms Squeeze Past California in Magazine’s Ranking of Top 500 Businesses
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 perennially led Florida in the rankings since their inception in 1984, placed second with 116 firms. Of those, 12 are in Orange County.
“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.
But Orange County’s top Latino entrepreneurs differed from their counterparts nationwide, for not a single local company on the list was in the food or beverage industry. Instead, the list is diversified and ranges from high-technology engineering firms to a nuts-and-bolts distributor.
Infotec Development, a Santa Ana computer engineering firm, is the largest Latino-owned firm in Orange County with 1988 sales of $45 million. The company, which ranked No. 39, engineers and installs computer systems for such clients as the U.S. Air Force and public utilities.
“There have been a lot of opportunities for small companies in the high-tech arena,” said company President J. Fernando Niebla, 49, a Mexican immigrant who helped found the 10-year-old firm. “We were there with the right skills and knowledge.”
So was Moses E. Cordova, when he opened his first nuts-and-bolts distributing firm in 1967, with $5,000 and two employees. That was Circle Bolt in Santa Fe Springs, which he sold in 1972 to For Better Living Inc., a diversified San Juan Capistrano firm.
Cordova and wife, Rachel, took stock instead of cash when they sold their first firm, so their second--Cordova Bolt Inc. of Buena Park--started on a shoestring, too, with a mere $15,000. Today, it’s No. 150 in Hispanic Business Magazine’s national ranking, with 1988 sales of $12.7 million.
Moses Cordova is president of Cordova Bolt, which opened its doors in 1975, and Rachel Cordova is its comptroller. A son and a daughter also work within the company. Another son runs the family’s Denver company, Centennial Bolt, which had 1988 sales of $3.7 million.
“We want the business to continue and stay in the family,” Moses Cordova said. “It’s been a good business for us. I don’t think we’ve had any major problems, but we work here lots of hours.”
Wealthier in Florida
No. 1-ranked 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 the first-place ranking despite the fact that the Golden State’s Latino 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 in 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 Cuban-Americans. “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. Mexican-Americans, in large part, are from the lower socioeconomic strata of society. This is the main difference.”
Publisher 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.”
Times staff writer Maria L. La Ganga in Orange County contributed to this report.
THE LARGEST LATINO-OWNED FIRMS IN ORANGE COUNTY
based on 1988 sales
‘88 Sales Company/city Type of business (millions) Infotec Development, high-technology $45.0 Santa Ana engineering Casanova Pendrill, 25.0 Irvine advertising Serrot Corp., pond and tank 23.1 Huntington Beach linings Gateway Chevrolet, auto 13.9 Buena Park dealership Cordova Bolt, nut/bolt/screw 12.7 Buena Park distributor Cottage Development, residential 12.0 San Clemente development XCL Financial Services, investments and 12.0 Santa Ana insurance Orange Coast Electric Supply, wholesale electrical 10.0 Santa Ana supplies Savala Construction Co., underground 7.5 Irvine construction Independent Forge Co., aluminum 5.8 Orange forgings La Habra contractor Air Conditioning Systems, mechanical 4.7 Essco Wholesale Electric, electrical 4.5 Anaheim supplies
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
