Gulf States Toyota

Since every new Toyota sold in Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas passes through Gulf States Toyota's processing center in Houston, it's no wonder the distributor is one of the biggest private companies in town.
And Gulf States has been growing. It begun an expansion program in 2006 to handle the added shipments expected with the opening of the new Toyota truck plant in San Antonio.
The new Tundra trucks built in the Alamo City are shipped to Gulf States' Houston facility for final touches, from leather seats to pinstriping, before being shipped to one of the 150 dealers in the five-state area.
But the company, which was the biggest private company on the Chronicle 100 list the past two years, this year trailed Targa Resources, a rapidly growing gas pipeline and processing company.
Gulf States, which has more than 1,300 employees, is owned by the Friedkin Companies. The privately held company doesn't disclose revenue, but based on a Forbes 2005 revenue estimate plus its sales growth for the year, the company topped the $5 billion mark in 2006.
BILL HENSEL JR.

Texon

Texon is doing quite well with a business based on serving oil and gas producers and knowing just how much a barrel of oil is worth with a little butane mixed in.
The Houston energy marketing company ranks No. 3 on this list, with revenue rising from $1.90 billion in 2004 to $3.28 billion last year. In large part, that's a reflection of the big rise in the value of the oil and gas it buys at the wellhead and resells.
Ron Martinez, Texon's vice president of finance and risk management, describes the business as a balancing act.
Texon and other marketers need to buy at a low enough price to sell it for enough to cover its costs and turn profit. Deciding how much to pay for a barrel of oil is a judgment call that can depend on a long list of variables, including the distance from the market, local pipeline connections and quality of the crude.
Sellers are looking for someone to offer good service — taking care of everything from transportation to record keeping — and a price that's competitive with other marketers, Martinez said.
In addition, Texon's most rapidly growing business is selling a system that allows gasoline terminal owners to blend butane with gasoline, which reduces the cost of a gallon of fuel while complying with emissions standards.
It fits together because it's all marketing related, said Martinez. "We keep it simple, we do what we know how to do."
— STEPHEN RASSENFOSS

US Oncology

Will US Oncology go public again?
The once-publicly traded company isn't working on anything like that, but that could change, said Bruce Broussard, president of the quickly growing health service network that focuses on cancer treatment.
"We will do in excess of $3 billion in revenue this year," he said. "We have significant size and scale, so there is always a possibility of doing that."
Broussard said the Houston company went private in 2004 because its executives "felt the changes in the health delivery system required some long-term investments," which would be difficult with shareholders focused on its quarterly results.
"Those investments have paid off for the company." he added.
US Oncology's revenue last year was up 22 percent from 2004, when it reported it had $2.3 billion in revenue in the Chronicle 100 survey for that year.
In 2006, it added 180 doctors, a 15 percent increase, Broussard said. It's now working on automating its clinical records, standardizing care plans and improving efficiency, Broussard said.
While the many clinical trials run at its clinics are a break-even business for US Oncology, Broussard bragged about "playing a pivotal research role in 24 of the last 30 drugs approved by the FDA for cancer patients."
BRETT BRUNE

Grocers Supply

Grocers Supply Co. is a big, low-profile regional wholesaler with a public face in the Houston grocery business.
The Houston-based company supplies food, health and beauty items and other products to convenience stores, grocery stores and schools within a 350-mile radius of Houston. Grocers Supply's international division ships supplies to oil company operations, embassies and others, according to Hoovers.
And then there's its best known operation in town, the Fiesta Mart chain.
Grocers Supply took in an estimated $2 billion in sales for fiscal year 2006, according to Supermarket News.
The company was founded in 1923 by Joe Levit. His son Max Levit is now the company president and CEO.
Three years ago, the company got into retail by acquiring its biggest customer, Fiesta Mart. The grocery chain is among the pioneers of ethnic niche marketing.
"Fiesta knows its customers and what to offer and does a good job catering to Hispanics," said Mindy McBain, senior staff writer at the Shelby Report, a trade publication covering the grocery industry in the Southwest. "They're at the right place at the right time," she said.
Fiesta faces increasing competition from other Hispanic-consumer-minded grocers including H-E-B and Wal-Mart Supercenter.
DAVID KAPLAN

Academy Sports & Outdoors

Academy Sports & Outdoors has traditionally been a low-priced sporting goods retailer, and the formula has worked.
Nevertheless, the private retail chain that said it had more than $1.8 billion in revenue in 2006, has decided to tinker a bit.
While sticking to its basic strategy, Academy is branching out by selling more upscale goods.
"What we're finding out is that we have a lot of growth opportunity in the upper end of the spectrum," said David Gochman, CEO of Academy Sports & Outdoors.
The company realized that many customers who buy items such as sports equipment for their kids and sneakers and golf balls for themselves, would also buy high-end golf clubs from Academy if they were available. So it has started carrying quality golf club brands such as Odyssey, TaylorMade, Calloway and Nike Premium in 30 of its 95 stores.
With golf clubs, Academy will offer an additional level of service, said Beth Menuet, executive vice president and general merchandising manager. And departing from its general value-priced strategy, Academy won't try to undercut competitors on higher-end golf equipment.
"We're not abandoning our roots, but expanding upward," said Gochman, who noted that "business is great and we continue to grow."
DAVID KAPLAN

Metals USA

Metals USA won't be on the private list for long.
The Houston metals processor plans to go public as soon as the market appears receptive to shares.
It's an example of how companies can jump from public to private and back nowadays with the backing of big investors.
Metals USA's stint on the private list hasn't been long. It was publicly traded just two years ago, when it landed the No. 2 spot on the Chronicle 100 list.
Lourenco Goncalves, the company's CEO, decided to take the company private at the end of 2005 to "reward shareholders."
The company, whose stock has been sliding in the months prior to going private, was acquired for about $450 million by a group led by Apollo Management, a New York-based private investment firm.
Metals USA had sales last year of $1.8 billion, compared to $1.6 billion in 2005. Its first quarter sales were up 7.6 percent, with higher prices making up for a small decline in the volume of sales through its metals service centers.
With the supply of metal tightening and prices trending upward, Lourenco Goncalves, the company's CEO, says the company will continue to grow.
The company's biggest challenge in the coming years? China.
"China's the 900-pound gorilla," he said.
PURVA PATEL

Camac International

Camac International Corp. bills itself as the largest African American-owned business in the U.S. oil and gas sector.
The privately owned Houston company was founded in 1986 as a tobacco and grain exporting business by Nigerian-born Kase Lawal.
During the 1990s, Lawal refashioned Camac into an oil and gas producer, oil-field services and energy trading business. Lawal could not be reached for comment.
Privately held by Lawal and his family, Camac reveals few financial details. But last year, company officials say, Camac boasted nearly $1.6 billion in revenue, up 5 percent from the previous year and a whopping 58 percent from 2004.
In Houston, Camac operates an oil and gas trading operation out of its corporate offices in the Galleria area. The company employs about 300 worldwide, including 40 in Houston.
Through an affiliate, Camac holds a 60 percent stake in the offshore Oyo Field, located in the deep water off the coast of Nigeria.
Seismic data suggests the Camac-controlled blocks in that field hold an estimated 46 million barrels worth of proven or probable reserves of light, sweet crude, company officials say.
Camac's partner, Italian oil giant Agip — the operator in that acreage — began drilling exploratory wells last year.
DAVID IVANOVICH

David Weekley Homes

For David Weekley Homes, Houston is currently more than just its hometown.
"We see it as the strongest market in the country, and we're in 18 cities," said chairman David Weekley.
While home sales and prices have dropped in some of its markets — Weekley expects to build over 5,000 homes this year, off 10 percent from 2006 — more than a quarter of its business is local.
The type of home it builds hasn't hurt the company's performance either.
Other national builders that focus on the entry-level market have been slammed by the crackdown in subprime lending, while David Weekley Homes builds primarily for the higher-end market.
The Houston-based builder is ranked ninth on the Chronicle 100's list of largest local private companies, with revenue last year of $1.5 billion, up from $1.3 in 2005.
Locally, the company is focusing on product diversification.
Future plans include building close-in townhomes and condominiums, as well as so-called "active-adult housing" for empty nesters and retirees.
Still, the company's not immune to the national slowdown.
It's taking a hit in Florida, said Weekley, where overbuilding and investor buying hurt home prices and sales.
NANCY SARNOFF

Krayton Polymers

Kraton Polymers said it raked in more than $1 billion in revenue last year and the Houston company its counting on innovation to continue its growth.
Recently the FDA cleared its product — a type of styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene — for use in packaging of fatty foods, such as plastic wrap around meat. The product line has been used with nonfatty foods for 30 years.
Kraton polymers are used to make a range of products, including adhesives, coatings, consumer and personal care products, sealants, lubricants, medical products, packaging, automotive, paving, roofing and footwear products.
Kraton is also banking on growth in Asia. In February, the company opened a new distribution center in Shanghai and hopes to boost its market share there.
Originally owned by Shell, Kraton's owners are in the private equity business. It sold to Ripplewood Holdings in March 2001 and then to Texas Pacific Group and JPMorgan Partners in 2003.
When a private equity firm owns an operation like this, it's likely to sell it down the line, either through a public stock offering or a merger, said Rick Ott, a spokesman for the company. But "there's nothing in the works."
PURVA PATEL