Next year, Business Report‘s Top 100 private companies list will celebrate its 30th year of publication. Compiling the most accurate listing possible—particularly without the cooperation of some of the eligible firms—has always been a challenge, but apparently never so much as in that inaugural year. “Who is behind the major private companies? What products do they make? What services do they sell? How many people do they employee? What kind of annual sales volume do they generate? In trying to find answers to these questions, Business Report discovered one thing very quickly: Private companies prefer to keep their internal affairs private.” Take a look at how Baton Rouge’s landscape of private companies has changed since that very first listing. For one thing, it takes annual revenue of more than $3 billion to top the list.
No. 1: Goudchaux/Maison Blanche
CEO: Josef Sternberg Jr.
Total employees: 3,500
Sales volume: $207,000,000
No. 2: Turner Investments Ltd.
CEO: Bert Turner
Total employees: 235
Sales volume: $175,000,000
No. 3: Associated Grocers
CEO: Hillar C. Moore Jr.
Total employees: 235
Sales volume: $160,000,000
No. 4: MMR Companies
CEO: James Rutland
Total employees: 2,200
Sales volume: $145,000,000
No. 5: Weber Marine Inc.
CEO: W.D. Weber
Total employees: 50
Sales volume: $88,000,000
—From the July 1986 issue of Business Report
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ON THE BLUFFS: The clearing of The Bluffs golf course was completed in May, and rough shaping and contouring of the fairway is beginning. The course should be ready to play by summer or early fall of next year. The golf membership sells for an initial membership contribution of $6,000 with monthly dues of $100.
THE INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS? When the Ochsner medical organization opens a 19-physician clinic and an HMO here this month, don’t expect the new doctors to be greeted with open arms by their local brethren. “We already have quality medicine here and an adequate supply of doctors,” said Dr. Harry Holden, president of the East Baton Rouge Medical Society. Local doctors, already besieged by a growing number of prepaid medical plans, are particularly worried about the arrival of Ochsner on the health care scene.
