ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 7, 1996 TAG: 9605070060
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C-8 EDITION: METRO
Black business sales outpace Fortune 500
NEW YORK - Sales for the nation's top black-owned businesses rose 11.8 percent last year, outperforming both the Fortune 500 and Forbes 500 lists, Black Enterprise magazine reports in its annual ranking.
Businesses listed in the magazine's June edition, released to the news media Monday, showed continued growth for the fourth straight year, amid declining unemployment and a continuing expansion of the national economy. The list includes 12 industrial and service companies and two automobile dealerships in Virginia, all but one based in Northern Virginia, Tidewater or the Richmond area. That sole company was J.H. Mitchell Enterprises, a car dealer in Lynchburg.
Growth for the companies on the list surpassed the 9.9 percent revenue jump reported for the same period by companies on Fortune magazine's list and the 10 percent growth tallied by Forbes magazine.
The Black Enterprise listing reported total revenues for the 100 largest industrial and service companies and 100 auto dealerships of $13.1 billion, a nearly 12 percent increase over the $11.7 billion reported last year.
``The key word for BE 100s companies was innovation - striving to meet their entrepreneurial mission in ways that they may not have considered or attempted in the past,'' Black Enterprise executive editor Alfred Edmond Jr. said. in a statement.
- Associated Press
Coal production rises 3 percent
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Domestic coal production rose 3 percent to 19.6 million tons during the week ended April 27 from 19 million tons the week before, the U.S. Department of Energy said Monday.
The U.S. coal industry produced 20 million tons in the same week last year, according to the department's Energy Information Administration.
Virginia mines produced 635,000 tons during the recent survey week., up from 584,000 tons a year earlier but down from 644,000 tons in the same week a year earlier.
Wyoming ranked first among the 27 coal-producing states with 5.4 million tons. West Virginia was second with 3 million tons and Kentucky was third with 2.7 million tons, the agency said.
Domestic coal production so far this year is 336 million tons, 1 percent behind last year's production at this time.
The week's production accounts for bituminous and lignite coal.
- Associated Press
6 of 205 accept buyout from NS
Norfolk Southern Corp. said Monday that 6 of 205 eligible clerical employees in Roanoke have accepted the company's latest voluntary job buyout offer.
Last month, clerks in NS' accounting and information technology departments and the company's mailroom, who had gone to work for the company before July 1, 1991, were offered a lump-sum payment of $35,000, less taxes and other deductions, to leave the company.
Of those eligible, 60 were 55 years or older and eligible for continued medical coverage through age 65. The deadline for filing an application for the buyout was last Friday, May 3.
- Staff report
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