Top 250 Private Companies: where's the beef? Swift sale leaves CH2M Hill alone at top.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Statistical data - Company rankings

The most obvious change in this year's Top 250 Private Companies ranking is at the top, where former No. 1 Swift & Co. of Greeley has been supplanted by Englewood-based CH2M Hill, the worldwide engineering giant.

But the bottom of the list is just as telling, if not more, than the top. A look at No. 250, where Denver-based Broadband Internet and telephone-services provider foreThought.net sits, shows it took revenues of $1.5 million just to make this year's ranking compared with the $1.2 million it took to eke into the Top 250 a year ago.

In all, 387 Colorado-based companies were contacted for the ranking, and 304 opted to participate by providing the required information, in most cases by logging on to www.cobizmag.com and filling out an online form.

The change at No. 1 occurred when Swift & Co., formerly owned by Dallas-based HM Capital Partners and George Gillett's Vail-based Booth Creek Management Corp., was sold to a South American meat processor, JBS S.A. The sale became final in July and made the consolidated JBS Swift Group the largest beef processor in the world.

The annual ranking is based on year-2006 revenues. Ordinarily, a company that existed as a Colorado-based private company for the entire year on which the ranking is based would be included in the ranking. But Swift & Co. isn't included because the company no longer is required to file an annual financial report with the SEC as it used to because of its debt-financing structure. Calls to the company to volunteer that information for the ranking were not returned.

New No. 1 CH2M Hill last year posted revenues of $4.5 billion and was one of seven Colorado-based private companies to top the $1 billion mark. Others were Denver-based PCL Enterprises ($4.1 billion), Greenwood Village-based Great-West Life and Annuity ($3.6 billion), Centennial-based Vistar Corp. ($3 billion), Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. ($2.1 billion), Centennial-based Burt Automotive Network ($2.1 billion) and Lone Tree-based Comex Group, formerly Professional Paint Inc. ($1.4 billion).

Those seven companies employ a combined 44,348 people, though not all in Colorado. CH2M Hill is the top employer on the list with 17,287 full-time employees around the world.

TOP 250 PRIVATE COMPANIES Ranked by revenues '06 Gross '05 2007 2006 Revenue Revenue % Years in Rank Rank Company (000's) (000's) Change Business 1 2 CH2M Hill $4,500,000 $3,800,000 18% 61 2 8 PCL Construction 4,110,043 3,119,600 32% 101 Enterprises Inc. 3 3 Great-West Life & 3,600,000 3,300,000 9% 100 Annuity Insurance Co. 4 4 Vistar Corp. 3,000,000 2,900,000 3% 5 5 6 Hensel Phelps 2,130,902 1,784,500 19% 70 Construction Co. 6 5 Burt Automotive 2,065,189 2,107,033 -2% 68 Network 7 7 Comex Group 1,430,000 1,220,000 17% 6 (formerly Professional Paint Inc.) 8 Rocky Mountain 437,364 396,240 10% 33 Health Plans 9 9 American 350,000 332,000 5% 39 Furniture Warehouse 9 12 WG Global Inc. 350,000 270,000 30% 99 (dba Wheelabrator Group) 11 Rock Bottom 290,099 272,858 6% 31 Restaurants Inc. 12 11 Simpson Housing 286,809 316,696 -9% 13 LLLP 13 13 Mike Shaw 286,302 260,805 10% 13 Automotive Group 14 J.E. Dunn Rocky 285,000 203,000 40% 83 Mountain Inc. 15 20 Haselden 274,000 179,000 53% 34 Construction 16 10 Republic 253,482 329,588 -23% 36 Financial Corp. 17 15 Ralph Schomp 242,251 214,161 13% 66 Automotive Inc. 18 16 FCI Constructors 235,000 213,000 10% 29 Inc. 18 23 McClain Finlon 235,000 148,000 59% 25 Advertising 20 18 Shaw Construction 231,000 203,000 14% 45 21 17 Village Homes of 220,000 205,158 7% 23 Colorado 22 21 Roche 185,059 153,479 21% 35 Constructors Inc. 23 22 Tuff Shed Inc. 182,718 153,732 19% 26 24 19 Alpine Lumber Co. 174,000 188,781 -8% 43 25 25 Agland Inc. 169,823 136,017 25% 102 26 28 Policy Studies 160,000 121,000 32% 23 Inc. (PSI) 27 30 Alpine Banks of 159,557 123,080 30% 34 Colorado 28 24 Holland & Hart 148,510 141,000 5% 60 LLP 29 27 Vitamin Cottage 144,895 122,206 19% 52 Natural Food Markets Inc. 30 26 Terra Firma 142,214 124,906 14% 12 31 29 Cigarette Store 124,000 118,000 5% 23 Corp. dba Smoker Friendly/Gasamat 32 31 Noodles & Co. 115,000 100,000 15% 12 33 McStain 106,306 120,056 -11% 41 Neighborhoods 34 40 Andavo Travel 100,000 78,000 28% 25 34 38 Brannan Sand & 100,000 90,000 11% 101 Gravel Co. 34 37 Neenan Co. 100,000 95,000 5% 41 37 34 RK Mechanical 99,600 102,000 -2% 22 Inc. 38 39 Baxa Corp. 97,488 92,364 6% 32 39 45 Golden Triangle 95,875 61,338 56% 30 Construction 40 56 Global Technology 92,500 42,000 120% 7 Resources Inc. 41 36 Palace 92,000 98,000 -6% 44 Construction Co. Inc. 42 43 Hercules 83,260 70,750 18% 45 Industries Inc. 43 44 Polk Majestic 81,000 63,000 29% 26 Travel Group 44 35 Torix General 79,000 101,300 -22% 20 Contractors LLC 45 Frederick Ross 76,863 61,700 25% 119 Co. 46 IMA Financial 73,106 61,850 18% 33 Group Inc. 47 57 Drahota 73,000 42,000 74% 34 Commercial LLC 48 49 Cain Travel Group 67,450 55,200 22% 23 Inc. 49 Saga Petroleum 65,500 60,000 9% 15 LLC 50 54 Publication 63,633 47,635 34% 28 Printers Corp. 51 48 Merrick & Co. 60,600 54,800 11% 52 52 47 Calcon 60,100 50,200 20% 26 Constructors Inc. 53 58 PRACO Ltd. 52,758 41,395 27% 37 54 51 Lockton Cos. LLC, 52,500 50,100 5% 27 Colorado Division 55 Fresh Produce 52,400 53,900 -3% 23 Sportswear Inc. 56 52 Van Gilder 48,159 41,493 16% 102 Insurance Corp. 57 55 Johnson Storage & 45,000 47,000 -4% 107 Moving Co. Holdings LLC 58 Alpine Buick 40,000 N/A N/A 2 Pontiac GMC 59 63 Craters & 38,359 33,639 14% 17 Freighters Franchise Co. 60 64 M-E Engineers 37,100 32,500 14% 26 Inc. 61 Intelligent 36,600 26,200 40% 10 Software Solutions Inc. 62 62 Meyers Dining 36,200 35,000 3% 2 Insurance LLC 62 National Finance 36,200 22,200 63% 16 Corp. of Colorado 64 70 National 34,245 26,883 27% 8 Corporate Housing 65 69 CoCal Landscape 32,700 30,100 9% 15 66 67 Image Projections $31,100 $28,600 9% 11 West Inc. 67 66 RNL Design 30,603 30,520 0% 51 68 Sport Obermeyer 30,000 30,000 0% 47 Ltd. 69 ViaWest Inc. 29,000 19,961 45% 8 70 68 DSP Builders Inc. 28,400 27,356 4% 15 71 HB Management 28,000 24,500 14% 5 Group 72 72 Nexus Corp. 27,000 27,000 0% 40 73 89 Breakthrough 26,713 18,486 45% 8 Management Group 74 CTL Thompson Inc. 26,600 25,500 4% 36 75 Forerunner Corp. 26,400 24,400 8% 10 76 73 Alpine Access 26,100 25,200 4% 9 Inc. 77 83 PrimeSource 26,080 22,500 16% 10 Staffing 78 78 EON Office 26,000 24,000 8% 6 78 95 Statera Inc. 26,000 16,000 63% 6 80 77...