(Northwest) Arkansas and the Fortune 500

[KJW 77]

Fascinating: the NWA metro area now has three Fortune 500 companies, and more Fortune 100 companies than the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Indiana and Missouri.

 

Was taking some papers to the recycling center when I saw an ArDemGaz story from May 12: "State buzzing over 2 firms' top 500 debut".  The two firms are Windstream of Little Rock and J.B. Hunt.

 

From the article by Lisa Hammersly:

 

 

 

With the addition of J.B. Hunt Transport, Northwest Arkansas claims three companies on the list this year, including Wal-Mart and Tyson.  The region stays ahead in numbers, barely, of Little Rock, which has Dillard's and Windstream.

 

"Northwest Arkansas with three on the Fortune 500 list has as many (Fortune 500 companies) or more than 23 states [including Washington (D.C.)," Malone said.

 

 

and;

 

 

With six companies on the Fortune 500 this year, Arkansas noses out Nebraska, home of five Fortune 500 companies, including Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway.

 

Arkansas also led more populous states such as Kentucky (with five Fortune 500 companies), Maryland (4), Oklahoma (4), Louisiana (3), Oregon (2) and South Carolina (1).

 

Twelve states don't have a single company big enough to make the list: Alaska, both Dakotas, Hawaii, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.

 

Walmart regained the #1 spot, with $469.2 billion in revenues, followed by ExxonMobil with $449.9 billion.