Prospecting for the top 49.

• Author: Griffin, Judith Fuerst
• Position: The New 49ers - Alaska's top 49 revenue producing companies - Cover Story

Finding Alaskan Gold

In 1990, the Alaska economy was back to business as usual, sans oil spill cleanup income that caused 1989 revenues to skyrocket. The heavy spending by Exxon and government is gone, but not forgotten. At many companies, the shot-in-the-arm business improved stability and long-term prospects.

The year of efforts to repair damage to coastlines in Prince William Sound and other parts of Southcentral Alaska also won't be forgotten because of the way it skews statistics. Take the New 49ers of 1991, for example. The combined 1990 revenues of these 49 Alaskan-owned, Alaska-based companies are $177 million shy of their combined revenues in 1989.

The decline in only one company's revenues for the year accounts for more than triple the difference. Following its stint as Exxon's general contractor for oil-spill cleanup work in 1989, Veco International's gross revenues dropped almost $700 million.

Even without spill-cleanup revenues, 1989 was a year of expansion for Alaska businesses, and 1990 continued that trend. The average increase in revenues for the New 49ers in 1990, despite Veco's 73 percent drop, is 20 percent.

Alaskan businesses have been bolstered by increasing population, rebounding real estate markets and growth in several industries, most notably mining, construction and services. According to the Alaska Department of Labor, all regions of the state enjoyed greater employment in December 1990 than in December 1989.

Total employment of New 49er firms in 1990 was 21,108, down from 23,860 for the top 49 companies the prior year. This figure, too, was skewed by one company's 6,000 workers in 1989.

Among businesses with outstanding growth in 1990 are seafood processors whose businesses were stymied by the oil spill of 1989. Sea Hawk Seafoods of Valdez and All Alaskan Seafoods of Kodiak saw revenues increase 72 and 74 percent, respectively.

Also enjoying expansion last year were building contractors, including Brice Inc., with a 118 percent increase in 1990 revenues; C.R. Lewis Inc., 99 percent; Construction & Rigging, 78 percent; and Gaston & Associates, 68 percent. Similarly reflecting an uptick in the building trade, the construction subsidiaries of Arctic Slope Regional Corp. and Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp. contributed largely to revenue increases of 94 and 46 percent, respectively, at those two Barrow-based firms.

Not surprisingly, automobile dealerships, which have been visibly expanding with new showrooms in Anchorage...