THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300420
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D01 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Three Hampton Roads companies made Forbes magazine's list of the 500 largest private companies in the United States - Farm Fresh Inc., Landmark Communications Inc. and L.M. Sandler & Sons Inc.
Norfolk-based Farm Fresh moved up 13 spots to 229; Virginia Beach-based L.M. Sandler & Sons slipped 18 spots to 372; and Norfolk-based Landmark Communications debuted on the list at 415. Landmark is the parent company of The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star.
The list, published in the business magazine's Dec. 5 issue, ranks companies by annual revenues. It also included 14 other Virginia-based companies.
Forbes counted only those companies that are U.S.-based for-profit businesses whose ownership is closely held. That includes companies with fewer than 500 partners or shareholders or companies whose ownership is restricted to a select group, such as company executives.
The list doesn't include companies with fewer than 100 employees or those in which a public company owns 50 percent or more.
The McLean-based candy manufacturer Mars Inc. was the largest Virginia company on the list with an estimated $12.5 billion in annual sales. Minneapolis-based Cargill Inc. was first on the list with annual revenues of $47.1 billion. Cargill, an international commodities firm, owns two grain-handling elevators in the port of Hampton Roads.
Farm Fresh employs about 2,400 people at supermarkets and discount bulk-grocery stores in Virginia and North Carolina. Its 67 stores include Farm Fresh, The Grocery Store, Rack & Sack and Gene Walters Marketplace.
The chain had annual revenues of $741 million last year and a net loss of $21 million after paying the interest on debt left from a leveraged buyout in the late 1980s.
``I'd rather be on the Forbes 500 list of most profitable companies,'' said Michael Julian, Farm Fresh chairman and chief executive. ``This reflects our size and position.''
Julian said Farm Fresh expects to move farther up the list next year given the added sales of the 12 stores it bought in Richmond late last year.
Forbes estimated that L.M. Sandler & Sons had revenues of $485 million. The firm, owned by the Sandler family, made $6 million last year, Forbes said. Sandler & Sons employs more than 1,100 people.
It was on last year's list under the name Consolidated Foodservice Companies L.P., its joint partnership with Sara Lee Corp. It agreed in September to sell to Sara Lee its majority interest in Consolidated, which does business in Hampton Roads as Sandler Foods and Nesson Meat Sales Co.
Sandler & Sons' other interests include real estate holdings, residential development, Ocean to Ocean Seafood Sales and a wholesale seafood broker. It is also the TCBY Yogurt franchisee in Hampton Roads.
Landmark Communications, which employs 4,500 in 20 states and Europe, had revenues of $436 million last year, according to Forbes. The business magazine estimated that Landmark made a $29 million profit.
In addition to this newspaper, Landmark's holdings include daily newspapers in Roanoke and Greensboro; more than 30 nondaily newspapers; television stations in Nashville, Tenn., and Las Vegas, Nev.; The Weather Channel; The Travel Channel; Antique Trader Weekly and other collectibles magazines; and Chicago Magazine.
``We don't aspire to be on lists,'' said John O. Wynn, Landmark chief executive officer. ``We don't measure our success by how big we are, but we've been fortunate enough to develop several lines of business in recent years that have created tremendous opportunities.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color graphic
BIG BUSNIESSES IN VIRGINIA
Virginia private firms on the forbes 500 list of U.S. private firms
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
by CNB