Six Companies with Utah Operations Ranked in BusinessWeek 50 List

The April edition of BusinessWeek magazine announced the 12th annual ranking of the best-performing companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index—the “BusinessWeek 50.” These are companies whose management vision spurns conventional wisdom, according to BusinessWeek.

Six of the BusinessWeek 50 companies have Utah operations and EDCUtah has had the privilege of working with each of them, either through recruitment efforts or partnership activities. The Utah companies, listed according to their ranking are:

#3 Allegheny Technologies—ranked No. 26 last year, is an EDCUtah recruited company. Its titanium is a vital material for airplanes and jet engines and is a key ingredient in the hot-selling, though oft-delayed, Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In 2007, its high-performance metals kicked in 76 percent of the company's $1.2 billion in operating profits, despite making up just 40 percent of sales.

#5 Questar Corp.—ranked No. 5 for the second year in a row, Utah-based Questar Corp. is an EDCUtah founding member. Led by CEO Keith Rattie, Questar earned $507 million on sales of $2.7 billion last year and has benefited from a diverse set of businesses that includes gas pipelines and processing plants.

#11 CB Richard Ellis Group—an EDCUtah investor, CBRE is the nation's largest commercial real estate broker, more than doubling in size during the recent boom. Last year CBRE earned a record $388 million on sales of $6 billion.

#21 Goldman Sachs Group—is an EDCUtah recruited company. Unlike other big investment banks, Goldman got out of the subprime mortgage market at just the right time, generating a robust 40 percent return on equity last year.

#25 Nucor—is an EDCUtah recruited company. Nucor is now the nation's second-largest steel company, and the most profitable. After a record performance in 2006, slumping demand caused a 16 percent drop in earnings during 2007, but the company has remained a cash machine, booking nearly $1.5 billion in profits last year.

#26 Varian Medical—is an EDCUtah recruited company. Long thought of as the Microsoft of radiation-therapy equipment used to treat cancer, Varian Medical dominates its space with 50 percent-plus market share, methodical rollout of products and distribution clout with hospitals.

“The fact that so many BusinessWeek 50 companies have operations in Utah indicates that Utah is an ideal destination for headquarters operations and large expansion projects,” says Jeff Edwards, president and CEO of EDCUtah. “Companies driven by a desire for excellence recognize not only Utah's great location, unique beauty and unparalleled quality of life, but also the unmatched quality of our workforce. Utah continues to attract and retain the best of the best.”

Whether you want to call it management vision or moxie, BusinessWeek says this year's crop of 50 best performers “are companies that, for all of their past successes, are not afraid to alter their business models at the first signs of weakness,” and Utah is fortunate to have six of the top 50 performers in our state.