Nine Virginia companies make Black Enterprise lists

Published September 5, 2014 by Robert Powell, III

Nine Virginia companies have made lists of the nation’s largest black-owned  companies.

Seven of the Virginia businesses are on Black Enterprise magazine’s list of the 100 biggest black-owned industrial and services companies.

Two more are on the magazine’s list of 60 top black-owned auto dealerships.

All of the companies making the lists are based in Northern Virginia.  With nine companies, Virginia tied Florida and Illinois for fourth in the nation in the number of businesses on the lists, behind Michigan (21), Ohio (16), and Texas and Georgia (14).

The biggest Virginia company on the industrial/service list is Reston-based Thompson Hospitality. It had revenue of $485 million last year, making it No. 8 on the list, down one spot from No. 7 last year.

The company, which has 4,250 employees, provides food and facilities management services and operates quick-service restaurants. Its CEO is Warren M. Thompson.

The other six companies were:

No. 44 (down from 37th): SENTEL Corp.; Alexandria; engineering and IT services; CEO Darrell L. Crapps; 640 employees;  $87 million in revenue.
No. 56 (down from 47th):  SoBran Inc.; Fairfax, biomedical and environmental support; CEO Amos L. Otis; 764 employees; $62.33 million.
No. 63 (down from 52nd): Capston Corp.; Alexandria, defense support and IT services; CEOs William J. Moore and Richard L. White; 319 employees; $50.38 million.
No. 70 (down from 66th):  Advanced Systems Development Inc.; Alexandria; IT products and services; CEO Richard L. Bennett; 225 employees; $42.53 million.
No. 82 (down from 61st): Metters Industries Inc.; McLean; IT services and solutions; CEO Samuel Metters; 267 employees; $34.1 million.
No. 84 (up from 90th): InScope International; Reston; staffing, engineering and information services solutions; 80 employees; $33.3 million.

The two companies on the Black Enterprise list of largest black-owned auto dealerships were:

BMW of Sterling, run by Thomas A. Moorehead ranked 14th on the list, down from 11th last year. The dealership, which has 149 employees, had revenues of $161.5 million last year.

Also, Infiniti of Chantilly, operated by chief executive Reginald L. Brown Jr., had 42 employees and 2013 revenue of $43.9 million. It ranked No. 41 on this year’s list, down two spots since the previous list.