Inc. Magazine Unveils Its Fourth Annual Exclusive List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies—the Inc. 5000
Nielsen-Kellerman Company Ranks No. 4425 on the 2010 Inc. 5000 with Three-Year Sales Growth of 20%
NEW YORK, August 24, 2010 — Inc. magazine today ranked Nielsen-Kellerman NO. 4425 on its fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent-minded entrepreneurs. Music website Pandora, convenience store chain 7-Eleven, Brooklyn Brewery, and Radio Flyer, maker of the iconic children’s red wagon, are among the prominent brands featured on this year’s list.
“The leaders of the companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 have figured out how to grow their businesses during the longest recession since the Great Depression,” said Inc. president Bob LaPointe. “The 2010 Inc. 5000 showcases a particularly hardy group of entrepreneurs.”
Nielsen-Kellerman Company designs, manufactures and distributes waterproof instruments for active lifestyles and technical applications across three brands: Kestrel Pocket Weather Meters, NK electronics for the sport of rowing, and ClearNav soaring instruments. For more than thirty years, NK has been known worldwide for its waterproof speed measurement, timing and audio systems for competitive rowers. Virtually every shell at the 2008 Athens Olympic games carried NK equipment. Nielsen-Kellerman’s Kestrel Weather division has been researching, developing and manufacturing technically advanced portable weather instruments for more than a decade and owns multiple patents on their unique features. This is the second consecutive year NK has made the Inc. 5000 list.
The 2010 Inc. 5000, unveiled today on Inc.com, serves as a unique illustration of the profound changes taking place in the U.S. economy. The Government Services sector showed the biggest gain in terms of the number of companies on the list, up 33 percent from last year to 335 companies. Government Services was also the second-fastest-growing sector in terms of median revenue growth, posting a 202 percent gain over the 2006-2009 measuring period. More than half of these companies are based in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. The fastest-growing sector by median revenue growth was Real Estate, now just a tiny group of 38 young, small companies, which showed 231 percent median growth over the period. (There were 121 Real Estate firms on the inaugural Inc. 5000 in 2007.) Business Products & Services is the top industry by number of companies on the list (640) and total revenue ($80.7 billion), while Health is the biggest by total employment (287,726 jobs).
Despite the fact that most of this year’s measuring period of 2006-2009 took place during the latest recession, aggregate revenue among the companies on the list actually increased to $321.6 billion, up more than 50 percent from last year. The effects of the recession are seen, however, in the median three-year growth rate, which dropped to 96 percent from last year’s 126 percent. This year’s Inc. 5000 employ a record 1.4 million people, up from one million on last year’s list. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high, policymakers and business leaders will do well to look to the Inc. 5000 companies for fresh ideas on achieving growth and creating jobs.
Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found on www.inc.com/5000.
For more information, contact Monica Devlin:
610.447.1555 X 306,
mdevlin@nkhome.com
