Top 100 Colorado-based public companies.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Public companies

Casual shoes made from a patented plastic, and giant burritos that McDonald's spun off from its fast-food menu were the biggest newsmakers among Colorado's top 100 public companies this past year.

Crocs Inc. has seen its comfy, brightly colored rubbery shoes, originally designed for boaters, explode in popularity worldwide with fashion reviews and demand emanating from as far away as South Africa. The Niwot-based company completed an initial public offering in mid-February this year.

In 2005, Crocs' revenues soared to $108.6 million, a 704 percent increase over the previous year's sales of $13.5 million. Crocs also posted a profit of $16.7 million last year, compared with a loss of $1.5 million in 2004.

Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill went public this January after majority owner McDonald's grew the company from 16 Denver-area restaurants in 1998 to more than 500 across the U.S.

McDonald's, which still owned 69 percent of Chipotle at the time of the IPO, announced in April that it plans to exit Chipotle completely by the end of 2006.

The emergence of those two in-state IPOs was offset by the loss of another publicly traded industry giant. Regal Entertainment, the nation's largest cinema chain and controlled by billionaire Philip Anschutz, announced in June 2005 the move of its headquarters from Centennial to Knoxville, Tenn.

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The ColoradoBiz top 100 public-company rankings are based on 2005 revenues filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

WRITTEN BY MIKE TAYLOR

MANAGING EDITOR, COLORADOBIZ

LIST PREPARED BY WES SKILES

TOP 100 COLORADO-BASED PUBLIC COMPANIES Ranked by revenues 2006 '05 '05 Sales Rank Company Ticker Rank (000's) 1 Qwest Communications Q 1 $13,903,000 International Inc. 2 First Data Corp. FDC 3 10,490,400 3 Transmontaigne Inc. TMG 2 8,549,400 4 Echostar Communications Corp. DISH 6 8,425,500 5 Liberty Media Corp. L 4 7,960,000 6 Ball Corp. BLL 7 5,751,200 7 Molson Coors Brewing Co. (1) TAP 5 5,506,900 8 Liberty Global Inc. LBTYA 12 5,151,332 9 MDC Holdings Inc. MDC 9 4,884,200 10 Newmont Mining Corp. NEM 8 4,406,000 11 Western Gas Resources Inc. WGR 11 3,958,700 12 Level 3 Communications Inc. LVLT 10 3,613,000 13 Great West Life & Annuity GWL 13 3,301,000 Insurance Co. 14 Regal Entertainment Group (1) RGC 15 2,516,700 15 Sports Authority Inc. TSA 16 2,509,300 16 UAP Holding Corp. UAPH $2,506,730 17 Prologis Trust PLD 26 1,954,000 18 Cenveo Inc. MWL 18 1,749,381 19 Apartment Investment & AIV 20 1,570,800 Management Co. 20 Wild Oats Markets Inc. OATS 22 1,124,000 21 Cimarex Energy Co. XEC 30 1,118,600 22 Teletech Holdings Inc. TTEC 21 1,086,700 23 Forest Oil Corp. FST 25 1,072,000 24 janus Capital Group JNS 23 999,500 25 Archstone-Smith Trust ASN 24 998,100 26 Ciber Inc. CBR 27 956,000 27 Samsonite Corp. SAMC 28 902,900 28 Frontier Airlines Holdings FRNT 33 833,639 Inc. 29 Vail Resorts Inc. MTN 29 810,000 30 Titanium Metals Corp. TIE 37 749,800 31 St. Mary Land & Exploration SM 40 739,600 Co. 32 MacDermid Inc. MRD 738,043 33 Markwest Hydrocarbon Inc. MWP 46 714,200 34 Time Warner Telecom Inc. TWTC 32 708,700 35 Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. CMG 627,695 36 McData Corp. MCDTA 43 614,400 37 Whiting Petroleum Corp. WLL 47 573,200 38 MarkWest Energy Partners LP MWE 54 499,100 39 Navigant International Inc. FLYR 39 492,000 40 Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc...