Report: 18 of the Nation's Top-Grossing Black-Owned Businesses in Chicago
Black Enterprise magazine's fortieth anniversary issue hit stands not long ago, marking the continuation of an annual tradition for the publication: The BE100s, a "comprehensive analysis [that] includes a total of 230 companies broken down into seven categories."
Anyway, companies from all across the country were assessed by "collecting surveys from companies and gathering information from government agencies, professional organizations, industry associations, business information services and corporations." Long story short is that, of these findings, nearly 20 of the nation's top-grossing black-owned businesses are right here in the Chicagoland area -- and they all fall in a number of categories, too, from Harpo and Johnson Publishing to many, many others. Here's the publication's list:
Industrial/Service Companies (revenues in millions)
- No. 14 Harpo Inc. Chicago $309.000
- No. 23 Baldwin Richardson Foods Co. Frankfort $173.000
- No. 30 Johnson Publishing Co. L.L.C. Chicago $105.000
- No. 32 Promet Energy Partners L.L.C. Chicago $101.842
- No. 58 C.H. James Restaurant Deerfield $56.006
- Holdings L.L.C.
- No. 89 The Will Group Wheaton $25.117
Auto Dealers (revenues in millions)
- No. 8 Sutton Auto Team Matteson $156.000
- No. 46 Courtesy Auto Group Danville $32.500
Advertising Agency (revenues in millions)
- No. 4 Burrell Communications Group L.L.C. Chicago $23.000
- No. 8 commonground marketing Chicago $15.300
Financial Services Companies
Banks (assets in millions)
- No. 4 Seaway Bank and Trust Co. Chicago $516.268
- No. 13 Illinois Service Federal Savings Chicago $147.261
- and Loan Association
- No. 15 Highland Community Bank Chicago $95.279
Asset Managers (assets under management in billions)
- No. 7 Ariel Investments L.L.C Chicago $4.384
- No. 9 Capri Capital Partners L.L.C. Chicago $3.596
- No. 11 Holland Capital Management L.L.C. Chicago $2.712
Investment Banks (lead issues in millions)
Taxable Securities Ranking
- No. 2 Loop Capital Markets L.L.C. Chicago $10,017.3
Tax-Exempt Securities Ranking
- No. 3 Loop Capital Markets L.L.C. Chicago $2,529.9
If you want to read more about the rankings, click here.
David Wolinsky is a freelance writer and a lifelong Chicagoan. In addition to currently serving as an interviewer-writer for Adult Swim, he's also a comedy-writing instructor for Second City. He was the Chicago city editor for The Onion A.V. Club where he provided in-depth daily coverage of this city's bustling arts/entertainment scene for half a decade. When not playing video games for work he's thinking of dashing out to Chicago Diner, Pizano's, or Yummy Yummy. His first career aspirations were to be a game-show host.
