Who leads the NJBIZ Top 250 Private Companies list?

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While the companies occupying the top two spots on the latest NJBIZ ranking of privately owned New Jersey businesses haven’t changed since 2022, they – like most firms on the list – did post revenue gains.

The nation’s largest retailer-owned cooperative, Wakefern Food Corp. of Keasbey led the 2023 Top 250 Private Cos. list, published in the Aug. 21 issue of NJBIZ, with a reported $18.6 billion in revenue. Following for the second year in a row, Somerset’s SHI International Corp. took the No. 2 ranking posting 14% revenue gains to hit $14 billion.

Previously unranked Eisai Inc., based in Nutley, broke onto this year’s list in a big way: Placing at No. 3 with $4.9 billion.

Rounding out the top 5 positions, acquisitive Imperial Dade of Jersey City boasted 53% revenue growth to $4.9 billion and hold onto its No. 4 spot while Camden-based NFI again placed at No. 5 with 25% revenue growth to $3.9 billion in revenue.

Compiled by NJBIZ’s researcher, the annual top 250 list ranks privately held companies, based in New Jersey, by previous year’s revenue.

On the whole, the majority of this year’s participants saw either no change or an improvement in 2022 revenue over 2021, when businesses were still wading through immediate effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Going up

Across the ranking, 19 companies reported revenue growth of 50% or more, with eight businesses at least doubling their performance from 2021 to 2022 with more than 100% growth. That includes Donnelly Energy of Wayne (No. 104), an energy efficiency firm serving businesses and local government entities with affordable lighting, HVAC, EV and solar solutions, which had the distinction of posting the biggest gains on the top 250, reporting 221% revenue growth.

Other companies that saw more than 100% growth are:

In addition to Imperial Dade, three other companies saw revenue growth over 50% within the top 25 of the list:

• No. 17 Jingoli-DCO, with gains of 62%
• No. 19 Torcon Inc., which posted a 65% increase
• No. 22 Trinity Solar Inc., which reported a 52% gain.

Across the list’s top 100 ranked businesses, a number of companies came close to hitting that same marker, with revenue increases nearing the 50% mark. Those include:

• No. 30 March Associates Construction (44% increase)
• No. 31 Colliers Engineering & Design (49%)
• No. 57 Sax LLP (48%)
• No. 84 Rang Technologies Inc. (46%)
• No. 99 SESI Consulting Engineers (41%)

Going down

Out of the this year’s top privately owned firms, just about 17% reported decreases in revenues from 2021 to 2022. While the majority of those instances represented single-digit percentage drops, the largest dip was recorded by No. 243, Wysocki Electric Inc. of Pedricktown, which posted a decrease of 77% during the period covered.

The most significant declines in revenue were:

Total responses for this year’s list topped 300. The Top 250 Private Cos. list will also appear in NJBIZ’s 2024 Book of Lists, published in December. If you’d like to be included in the updated version, contact [email protected] for information about how to get listed or visit our Leads & Data Center here.