Top Company Colorado's most competitive business award.

• Position: 2005 TOP COMPANY FINALISTS

Colorado Biz's Top Company awards program was established in 1988 to recognize Colorado companies, to shine a spotlight on the best of the best, businesses whose financial and operational excellence and commitment to the community set the standard for those in business and those who follow.

The companies profiled in the following pages are this year's best-of-the-best, 27 finalists in nine business categories. Top Company is a difficult competition to win--dozens of Colorado businesses submit nominations each year. Deloitte, a long-time Top Company sponsor, evaluates all nominations and selects finalists based on:

* FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE

* EXCELLENCE IN ONE OR MORE OPERATIONAL ASPECT OF THEIR BUSINESS

* COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

A Judging panel of leading Colorado citizens then reviews information on the finalists, and winners are selected. This year's panel:

* Bill Easter, chairman, president & CEO, Duke Energy Field Services

* Angie Salazar, station manager, Rocky Mountain PBS

* Paul Tate, CFO, Frontier Airlines

* Diane Garcia, president, 2G Associates

* Darren Adamson, VP/campus director, University of Phoenix

* Carla Dore, president, Herman Miller Workplace Resource

* April Thayer, president, Thayer Media

* Brian Vogt, director, Office of Economic Development & International Trade, State of Colorado

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Winners will be announced on Sept. 8, at a gala luncheon at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, Seawall Ballroom. For ticket information please call the RSVP line at 303-662-5308.

Congratulations to all Top Company 2005 finalists, and to the event sponsors who make the event possible.

TECHNOLOGY/MEDIA/TELECOMMUNICATIONS

ADA TECHNOLOGIES

* Simply put, ADA specializes in creating and converting innovative technologies into commercial successes. Its business model targets a number of commercialization avenues, including the creation and spin-off of new business entities, the outright sale of technology, and the formation of joint ventures. Launched 20 years ago, the Littleton-based company has been awarded 17 patents for its technologies and has six to 12 more in various stages of development. Last year the company's revenues increased 39 percent over the previous year. "We're in the business of creating value from technology," says ADA President Cliff Brown. "On the left-hand side we have a very active research and development program. On the right-hand side of the picture is making sure we actually create value from the technology. It's looking at a whole series of things that are required to create value: making sure we have intellectual property protected, making sure we have the right marketing efforts in place, and how we create a product from the technology. You marry those two sides, and it gives you the ability to not only do R&D in interesting areas, but also transition it into value through licensing it or selling it or joint-venturing or creating spin-off businesses." ADA's expertise in dealing with federal research programs, most notably the Small Business Innovation Research Program (SBIR), through which ADA has received 124 research grants totaling $26 million with a "life of company" revenue generation of $46.8 million, has enabled it to conduct early-stage research while retaining intellectual property rights to the technology. Since 1991, the company's employees, who now number 35, have contributed more than $35,000 to the Mile High United Way, and $16,500 since 1997 to support more than 100 Colorado charities.

RETAIL/WHOLESALE

ALL COPY PRODUCTS

* Operating primarily in Colorado and Arizona, Denver-based All Copy Products produced a 44 percent revenue increase in 2004 compared with the previous year, selling, leasing and servicing supplies for copiers, fax machines, printers, scanners and mailing equipment. All Copy Products has been in business since 1975, but when Brad Knepper bought it 1999, he sought to give employees an atmosphere that would generate fun as well as enthusiasm for tackling challenging work. In four years Knepper transformed a seven-employee company into one with 67. All Copy now has offices in Denver, Boulder, Colorado Springs and Phoenix, it has increased sales nine-fold since Knepper bought it, and it has expanded beyond copy machines. The company is now an authorized dealer for Canon, Konica, Oki Data, Sharp, Hewlett Packard, Francotyp-Postalia and Captaris. "Good business partners are hard to find," says All Copy's corporate mission statement. "It is our goal to make it a hard decision to ever want to leave us." In the community, the company has donated copiers to local animal shelters, sponsored a Brokers for Battered Kids program, and bought Christmas presents for 50 children from a youth home in the company's "adoption" program.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

ALPINE BANKS OF COLORADO

* Formed by Bob Young in Carbondale 32 years ago, back when there were no banks between Aspen and Glenwood Springs, Alpine Banks now boasts 452 employees, all in Colorado. Young says the company's strength comes from its strong culture of community partnership and involvement, and what he calls simply "staying in the game, to not sell or merge and lose our identity." The company now has 28 locations on the Western Slope, all that growth funded from retained earnings so the company hasn't had to go to outside for any additional capital. "That creates a very strong and loyal shareholder base," Young says.

"There's a lot to be said for staying 32 years with the same people, with a very low level of turnover within the company," he adds. "I think the community notices and appreciates (that) .... They see those faces day by day, and obviously we try to deliver a high level of service." Among the bank's community efforts are the Alpine Banks Latino Scholarships that the bank created in 1996. The scholarships provide full tuition to Colorado Mountain College for up to eight Latino high school graduates each year. Another program is its "Pays for A's Campaign" begun in 1997 in partnership with the Roaring Fork Education Foundation. Under certain guidelines, students in several of the region's school districts can be paid $10 for A's, $5 for B's and up to $50 for straight A's. "We've never tried to be the Wal-Mart of our industry," Young says of his company, now based in Glenwood Springs, "but we have tried to deliver a high level of service and have people who are connected to the communities that they work in."

RETAIL/WHOLESALE

AMERICAN FURNITURE WAREHOUSE

* Colorado's largest furniture retailer was founded in 1975 by Jake Jabs, who not only has been a longtime household name locally because of his TV ads featuring cuddly animals, but who, at age 75, continues to run the company's day-to-day operations. "I enjoy what I'm doing, and I don't know what I'd do without something to go to," says Jabs. "I love the business, and I can't wait for Monday mornings to come down here and see what's sold over the weekend."

Jabs still supervises all the buying for the furniture company, and says of that role, "I guess that's what pushes my hot button. I'll probably work as long as my health permits." American Furniture Warehouse has 10 retail stores in the Denver area, its crowning glory a 635,000 square-foot showroom and warehouse on 17 acres in Englewood. The key to Jabs' success has been providing stylish and affordable home furnishings and accessories. Sounds simple enough.

"Hanging in there, seeing a lot of other companies go out of business ... right now I think there's four furniture stores going out of business in Denver," Jabs says, noting the importance of putting money back into the business. "We just bought the Homestead House stores, which will give us another great location--right in the middle of Highlands Ranch. That area just keeps growing and growing. You just can't find really good locations like that." Jabs also says the company is increasing its supply sources to keep up with new styles. American Furniture Warehouse imports from 400 different factories in 30 countries. "It gives us a definite advantage on pricing, getting the right goods," he says. "Also, we're not a national chain, so we don't need to buy what they like back East or in Florida or Atlanta, some place like that. We can buy what people like in Colorado."

MANUFACTURING

BAXA CORP.

* Baxa Corp., a medical device manufacturer, is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2005 with all the energy--and growth--of a startup. Baxa was founded in Chicago in 1975, but has done much of its growing in Colorado where Brian Baldwin, a co-founder, moved the company six years after it started because he wanted to live here. Since then the company has moved two more times to different facilities to accommodate growth.

Starting out in the state with eight employees, it now has more than 350 in Colorado, around the country and the globe. Greg Baldwin, chairman and CEO and son of the founder, said innovation is the secret to Baxa's success. "In order to keep Baxa successful, we must innovate and continue to impact hospitals with our cost-effective and easy-to-use products," he said. "We must innovate or die," he said, suggesting again the growth industry Baxa operates in: health care and medical-device manufacturing. Brian Baldwin and his co-founder...