GEORGIA’S FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES
33 Home Depot (34)
50 United Parcel Service (53)
58 Coca-Cola Co. (57)
81 Delta Air Lines (83)
125 Aflac (118)
170 Southern Co. (171)
205 Genuine Parts (214)
261 First Data (254)
262 AGCO (272)
293 RockTenn (291)
314 SunTrust Banks (239)
317 HD Supply Holdings (330)
348 Coca-Cola Enterprises (339)
357 Mohawk Industries (442)
423 NCR (441)
436 Newell Rubbermaid (433)
472 Asbury Automotive (506)
Note: Publicly traded companies ranked by 2013 revenue. Numbers in parentheses show previous ranking.
Source: Fortune
Georgia now has 17 companies among the Fortune 500, the annual list of the nation’s top publicly traded businesses based on revenue.
Duluth-based Asbury Automotive Group, which owns auto dealerships around the country, including more than a dozen in metro Atlanta under the Nalley brand, moved into the No. 472 spot on the Fortune list, giving the state one more company than it had last year.
Asbury Automotive, which reported $5.3 billion in sales last year, recently announced plans to open two new used vehicle stores under the ‘Q auto’ brand name.
Home Depot, the Atlanta-based home improvement retail giant, ranked the highest on the Fortune list among the Georgia companies, up a notch from last year to No. 33.
Fortune said Home Depot “honed in on its U.S. business last year as the housing rebound sent more customers into its stores for hardware, lumber and more.” The company, which had $78.8 billion in sales last year, is also benefiting from more investments to reach customers through online and mobile.
Sandy-Springs-based UPS, the package delivery service, moved up three spots to No. 50, the second-highest ranking among Georgia-based companies on the list. Fortune noted that UPS, which had $55.4 billion in 2013, made a commitment to hire 50,000 military veterans by 2018 despite a modest growth in sales. The company hired 13,000 vets just last year. The company has 120,000 workers.
Atlanta-based SunTrust Banks took a hit on this year’s list, falling 75 spots to No. 314, from 239. Other well-known companies also slipped: Atlanta-based Coca-Cola dropped one notch to 58 and Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines fell two positions to 81. Aflac, the Columbus-based insurer, fell seven spots to No. 125 and Coca-Cola Enterprises, the bottling company, fell nine to No. 348.
Both Coca-Cola and Aflac, with thousands of Twitter followers and Facebook friends, received kudos last year for being among the Fortune 500’s “social media stars.”
While it wasn’t among the 500, Atlanta-based Axiall, the chemical company formed with the completed merger last year of Georgia Gulf Corp. and a former division of PPG Industries, jumped 140 spots to No. 524 on the expanded Fortune list. AGL Resources, the Atlanta-based natural gas company, jumped 65 positions to No. 532.
The top company on the Fortune 500 list once again is Walmart, followed No. 2 Exxon Mobil, No. 3 Chevron, No. 4 Berkshire Hathaway and No. 5 Apple.
