A year that began with fears of cutbacks in federal contracts ended with 31 Washington area companies ranked in Hispanic Business magazine's list of the nation's top 500 Hispanic-owned firms.
Among the local companies, which rely on federal contracts for most of their revenue, five are newcomers to the annual listing compiled by the Santa Barbara, Calif.-based magazine, which tracks the Hispanic business sector. The remaining 26 have appeared in previous years.
Most of the locally based companies are technology-oriented federal contractors that got their start in the Small Business Administration's program to set aside federal contracts for minorities. According to the survey, nearly half of the 31 are enrolled in the SBA 8(a) program; nationally, 75 of the 500 companies on the list are in the program.
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Bob Dornan, senior vice president at Federal Sources Inc., a McLean-based market research firm specializing in the federal market, said half the federal government's spending on information technology goes to the Washington area, and that's good news for minority-owned companies. "If a minority-owned business wants to get a piece of the market share, this is a good place to start," he said.
Faced with lean times and strong competition, Government Micor Resources Inc., a maker of computer and network systems in Manassas, pared its layers of management while bolstering the department that bids on federal contracts by wooing top officials from its larger competitors, according to President Humberto Pujals. The privately held company, in its ninth year within the SBA 8(a) program, was No. 31 on the list with revenue of $80 million in 1994.
The company, which was not among Hispanic Business's top 500 last year because it did not complete the magazine's survey, has undergone steady growth in recent years and now employs 180 workers, compared with 110 in 1992, Pujals said.
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The Defense Department and civilian federal agencies are Government Micro Resources's main clients, though the company is trying to expand its commercial customers as competition increases for government contracts, Pujals said.
With federal belt-tightening underway, Pujals said, he is often competing against larger companies that are going after small- to medium-size federal contracts, once the domain of smaller firms.
"I think larger federal contracts are becoming scarce, which means the big companies that have been dependent on those outlays have nowhere to go but after the smaller contracts," Pujals said. "Years ago, you would have never seen some of the big boys go down this low after contracts."
Government Micro Resources is in the last year of a three-year, $4 million contract to supply the Federal Emergency Management Agency with computers to operate hastily constructed command centers during emergencies. For example, Government Micro Resources supplied the computer network systems for FE\MA's command center after Hurricane Andrew struck the southeast coast in 1992. Working around the clock, the company ordered computer hardware and software from suppliers, assembled them to FEMA's specification and shipped 160 units.
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Government Micro Resources also has a contract to supply the Defense Department with computers for verification of the dismantling of nuclear stockpile weapons in the former Soviet Union, Pujals said.
Government Micro Resources was helped by its decision to stick to its core business of information technology. The federal government continues to be the largest single buyer of information technology, according to Dornan of Federal Sources Inc. The information technology portion of the U.S. defense budget has remained flat since 1991, but in light of overall defense budget cuts, that indicates the Defense Department's willingness to spend on information systems and services, Dornan said. Meanwhile, information technology spending by civilian agencies has increased by 8 percent to 10 percent over the last two years, he said.
"The government can't function without automation," Pujals said. "There's always going to be money for automation."
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Government Micro Resources is one of 22 local technology companies to rank among Hispanic Business's top 500. Others include a construction company, two travel agencies, security management firms and an automobile sales and service shop. The 22 firms had a combined $686 million in revenue last year, compared with $570 million in 1993.
Washington area companies made up a small fraction of the total revenue of the top 500, reported at $12.15 billion last year -- up $1.19 billion over the previous year. The area trailed California and Florida in concentration of Hispanic-owned businesses.
The large jump in revenue got a big assist from Tri-Color Industries Inc., a computer system integration firm in Landover that took in $39.2 million in 1994, more than double the 1993 amount.
The growth came in a year when Tri-Color graduated from the SBA 8(a) program, and can be attributed to a new management team, a backlog of orders and "substantial" contract wins, according to Arnold Cash, the company's chief financial officer.
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Staffing reflected the revenue boom: Tri-Color employed 325 workers at the end of 1994, 110 more than at the close of 1993. Overall, employment at Hispanic Business's top 500 companies grew by 15.78 percent from 1993 to 1994, for a total work force of 90,725. * CAPTION: TOP HISPANIC-OWNED COMPANIES HISPANIC BUSINESS MAGAZINE'S TOP 500 RANKING INCLUDES 31 D.C. AREA FIRMS. 1995 . 1994 . COMPANY ...................... LOCATION ... REVENUE* 11. ... 13. . CTA Inc. ...................... Rockville .. $156.60 31. ... * ... Government Micro Resources Inc. Manassas .... $80.00 65. ... 41. . RJO Enterprises Inc. .......... Lanham ...... $40.00 68. .. 131. . Tri-Color Industries Inc....... Landover .... $39.20 85. ... 62. . Comprehensive Technologies
International Inc. ............ Fairfax ......$31.69 96. ... 82. . Kfoury Construction Group Inc. Falls Church $28.80 98. ....89. . Development Associates Inc. ... Arlington ... $27.57 104. .. 65. . MVM Inc. ...................... McLean ...... $25.60 126. .. 98. . Washington Consulting Group Inc.Washington .. $21.00 127. . 118. . Kemron Environmental Services Inc.McLean .... $20.45 153. .. * ... Compex Corp. .................. Alexandria ...$16.90 155. . 169. . Trandes Corp. ................. Lanham ...... $16.69 163. . 203. . Computer Systems Development Corp Chantilly . $16.00 173. . 242. . HJ Ford Associates Inc. ....... Arlington ... $15.00 224. .. * ... Solar Tours Inc. .............. Washington .. $12.40 234. . 160. . Southern Volks,Subaru & Oldsmobile. Waldorf .$11.47 244. . 202. . Creative Associates
International Inc. ............ Washington .. $10.92 270. .. * ... Counter Technology Inc. ....... Bethesda ..... $9.82 271. . 227. . Barrueta & Associates ......... Washington ... $9.80 318. .. * ... Fuentez Systems Concepts Inc. . Fairfax ...... $8.00 322. . 363. . Atlantic Resources Corp. ...... Reston ....... $7.98 331. .. * ... Centech Group Inc. ............ Arlington .... $7.72 332. . 268. . Computer Resource Management Inc.Herndon ..... $7.63 333. .. * ... Skyward Travel Center Inc. .... Takoma Park .. $7.60 335. .. * ... Loiederman Associates Inc. .... Rockville .... $7.54 340. . 376. . Technautics Inc. .............. Alexandria ... $7.37 370. . 356. . C.P.F. Corp. .................. Washington ... $6.63 442. . 337. . Interamerica Technologies Inc. McLean ....... $5.00 448. . 449. . Teleconsult Inc. .............. Washington ... $5.00 473. . 425. . BRTRC Inc. .................... Fairfax ...... $4.40 477. . 479. . National Premier Services Inc. Washington ... $4.35 *Rank by revenue in millions SOURCE: Hispanic Business magazine CAPTION: Espeticion T. Fuentez, CEO of Fuentez Systems Concepts Inc., one of 31 area firms in Hispanic Magazine's top 500.
