Eight companies with headquarters in the Richmond area have made this year's Fortune 500, an annual ranking of the nation's largest publicly traded companies by revenue.
That's one more than last year for the region, thanks to Altria Group Inc.'s decision to move its corporate offices here from New York last month.
Altria is the parent company of Henrico County-based Philip Morris USA, the largest U.S. cigarette maker. The move brought few jobs from New York, but it does give the region another Fortune 500 name for economic development marketing.
The Richmond metropolitan area is home to 14 Fortune 1000 companies. Those include eight on the Fortune 500 list of largest companies by revenue. The 2008 rankings were released yesterday. Here are the local companies' rankings, their annual revenue in billions, and their ranking last year in parentheses.61: Altria Group, $38.1 (No. 23)
161: Dominion Resources, $15.8 (No. 140)
215: Circuit City Stores, $12.4 (No. 215)
233: Genworth Financial, $11.4 (No. 227)
356: MeadWestvaco, $6.9 (No. 350)
360: Owens & Minor, $6.8 (No. 418)
384: Performance Food Group, $6.3 (No. 393)
582: LandAmerica Financial, $3.7 (No. 522)
683: Universal, $2.9 (No. 573)
791: Massey Energy, $2.4 (No. 804)
"We can use these lists to show that we are, and continue to be, a community that is attractive to corporate headquarters because we have a great quality of life, good schools and the type of infrastructure [companies] need in order to be successful," said Gregory H. Wingfield, president of the Greater Richmond Partnership, an economic development group.
One of the group's goals is to attract more corporate headquarters to the area. Maintaining a good representation on the Fortune 500 helps. The list is published by Fortune magazine.
The Richmond area retained all its Fortune 500 companies from last year, though one company — Performance Food Group Inc. — has agreed to a buyout offer from a private equity firm. That deal is expected to close in June pending shareholder approval, which means Goochland County-based Performance Food would drop from the Fortune 500 next year.
Six other locally based com- panies made the Fortune 1000 list, giving the region 14 companies among the nation's 1,000 largest.
Altria also becomes the largest of the Richmond area's Fortune 500 companies. It is ranked No. 61, with $38 billion in revenue. It dropped from No. 23 last year because of the spinoff last month of its international cigarette business into a separate company.
At the top of the Fortune 500 again this year is retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc., with more than $378 billion in revenue. Rounding out the top five are three oil companies — Exxon Mobil (No. 2, with revenue of $373 billion), Chevron (No. 3, $211 billion), ConocoPhillips (No. 5, $178 billion) — and automobile maker General Motors (No. 4, $182 billion).
Texas boasts 58 headquarters, outflanking New York by three to take the lead. California, at No. 3, has 52, The Associated Press reported. Four of the largest six corporations in Texas last year were oil companies, but the state's economy is more diverse than it was a generation ago.
Thirty-two Virginia-based companies made the Fortune 1000 list, including 19 on the Fortune 500. That compares with 29 companies on last year's Fortune 1000, including 17 on the Fortune 500.
In addition to Altria, joining the list this year are Computer Sciences of Falls Church (No. 170, $14.9), which announced Jan. 30 that it was moving its corporate headquarters to Virginia from El Segundo, Calif.; and AES of Arlington County (No. 183, $13.9) and BearingPoint of McLean (No. 604, $3.5 billion). Neither AES nor BearingPoint was ranked last year.
Sprint Nextel, with headquarters in Reston and Overland Park, Kan., was on the list last year at No. 53. This year it is ranked 58. But as the company consolidates its headquarters in Kansas, it will appear on that state's list.
Contact John Reid Blackwell at (804) 775-8123 or jblackwell@timesdispatch.com.
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