Houma companies make 5,000 Inc. list

Three Houma area companies were listed in the 2009 Inc. (magazine) 5,000, an annual ranking of the 5,000 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.

SweeDee and Southland Steel & Supply both made the list for the second consecutive year; Asap Industries, which placed the highest of the three in 2009, did not make the list last year.

Inc. magazine expanded its well-known ranking to 5,000 beginning in 2007. The survey had included 500 companies since 1982.

Companies are ranked according to percentage revenue growth over a four-year period. Businesses must be privately held, based in the U.S. and not a subsidiary of another company.

Southland, which makes steel products for the oil and gas and shipbuilding industries, placed at 4,428 on the survey in 2009 but ranked 3,467 last year.

Revenue in 2005 was $6.1 million and in 2008 it was $8.1 million, a growth rate of 34.2 percent.

“We had to send them our financials,” said Southland co-owner/CFO Michael Fakier. “Their main concern is growth rate. We had a good growth rate.”

Southland also sells remote valve operators called reach rods, which can access hard-to-reach valves.

Although the ranking is based on revenue growth, Fakier said Inc. magazine asked about different aspects of his company. The reach rods piqued the magazine’s interest, he said.

Inc. also asked what Southland did to retain its 11 employees. Fakier said the company has had no turnover in eight years.

He said the magazine was excited hearing about Southland’s annual crawfish boil. “That’s not much for people around here,” Fakier said.

Asap, founded in 2000, had $6.8 million in revenue in 2005 and $23.7 million in 2008.

Asap, which makes oilfield and gasfield drilling equipment, had a growth rate of 248.1 percent over the four-year period, placing the company at 1,276 in the 2009 ranking.

Waste collector SweeDee, established in 1978, ranked at number 3,111, with $22 million in revenue in 2005 and $41 million in 2008, giving the company a four-year growth rate of 86.3 percent.

SweeDee has 325 employees.

The top five metro areas represented in the 2009 Inc. ranking are New York, Washington, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago. The 2008 top five were the same.

Fakier said 62 companies on the list in 2008 were not in large metro areas.