1994 New 49ers: reaching the mother lode.

• Author: Woodring, Jeannie
• Position: Top 49 for-profit, private, Alaskan-owned and Alsaka-based businesses

In the 1890s, miners digging in the Last Frontier's gold fields often found fortune, but failed to hit the mother lode in the heart of the mountain.

In the 1990s, the state's mother lode of fortune may lie in Alaska Business Monthly's New 49ers.

For 10 years, this magazine has tracked the trail of Alaska's top 49 for-profit, private, Alaskan-owned and Alaska-based businesses. Since the first New 49er ranking published in 1985, this annual listing shows that, in spite of broad-based doom-and-gloom economic rumblings, Alaska's private employers are strong, growing and diversified.

Like the never-found mother lode of the gold fields, this private segment of Alaska's industry could prove to be the state's true fortune in the future.

Here's Alaska Business Monthly's claims and proofs about the New 49er potential.

Claim: In 10 years, Alaska's New 49ers have increased their total earnings and employment.

Proof: In 1985, the New 49er employers contributed $2.7 billion in revenues to the state's economy and employed 12 percent of Alaska's work force. The 1994 New 49ers, based on 1993 statistics, contributed $3.2 billion in revenues and employed 13.5 percent of Alaska's total work force.

Claim: The New 49ers are stronger financially than ever before.

Proof: The New 49ers individually show greater revenues than 10 years ago. The revenue range for the top 10 New 49ers in 1985 was from $75 million to $355 million; for 1994, the range for the top 10 New 49ers ran higher, from $102 million to $330 million. (The lower top revenue earner in 1994 stems from the fact that Carr Gottstein Foods Co., the No. 1 New 49 in 1985, fell off the list when it went public a few years ago.) Higher revenues are also found in 1994's top 20 and top 30 New 49ers when compared with the top 20 and top 30 New 49ers of 1985.

Claim: The New 49ers are more diversified than ever before.

Back in 1985, 27 of the New 49ers were single-entity companies, and the combined number of subsidiaries of the other New 49ers stood at 125. Ten years later, only 19 of the New 49ers are single-entity businesses; total number of subsidiaries for 1994 has grown to 151.

The industry mix of 1994's New 49ers also shows diversified trends when compared with 1985's listing. Ten years ago, 17 of the top New 49ers came from the trade sector. For 1994, 16 of the top New 49ers still come from the trade sector.

In 1985, nine banking firms made the New 49er list; only three -- the state's strongest banks --...