THE ALMANAC covers almost 500 top firms headquartered in the United States with revenues of between approximately $100 million and $300 million. (We have intentionally included a few important companies with revenues above or below those amounts.)

The firms have been filtered from our extensive, proprietary corporate information database. The middle market companies chosen include both private and publicly-held companies. They include most major industry sectors. However, retailing and banking are intentionally omitted. Consequently, the list is weighted towards fast-growing middle market sectors that we believe users will most want to analyze and/or market to: health products and services; biotech; energy; financial services including asset management, insurance and REITs; real estate development, construction and management; computer software; computer hardware and other electronics manufacturing; selected apparel firms; selected consulting, logistics and transportation firms; along with other important sectors. For additional details, see “Chapter 2, The Middle Market 500, Who They Are and How They Were Chosen.”

PLUNKETT’S ALMANAC OF MIDDLE MARKET COMPANIES is an easy-to-use solution to what would otherwise be a complicated problem: How can you extrapolate up-to-the-minute data on middle market U.S. companies? We have received many requests for a collection of data of this type. No other source provides this book’s easy-to-understand comparisons of growth, expenditures, technologies, corporations and many other items of great importance to people of all types who may be studying middle market companies. The data is organized into clear, concise profiles which we collectively call “THE MIDDLE MARKET 500.”

Especially helpful is the way in which PLUNKETT’S ALMANAC OF MIDDLE MARKET COMPANIES enables readers to readily compare the growth potential and business strategies of middle market firms. You’ll see the mid-term financial record of each firm, along with the impact of earnings, sales and growth plans on each company’s potential growth.

By scanning the data groups and the unique indexes, you can find the best information to fit your personal research needs. The major companies in the middle market are profiled and then ranked using several different groups of specific criteria. Which firms are the biggest employers? Which companies earn the most profits? These things and much more are easy to find.

PLUNKETT’S ALMANAC OF MIDDLE MARKET COMPANIES is your opportunity to gain valuable knowledge in a matter of minutes. Five hundred of the most successful middle market companies in America are analyzed in this book. Tens of thousands of pieces of information, gathered from a wide variety of sources, have been researched for these corporations and are presented here in a form that can be easily understood by information seekers of all types.

Whatever your purpose for researching the middle market, you’ll find this book to be a valuable guide. Nonetheless, as is true with all resources, this volume has limitations that the reader should be aware of:

• Financial data and other corporate information can change quickly. A book of this type can be no more current than the data that was available as of the time of editing. Consequently, the financial picture, management and ownership of the firm(s) you are studying may have changed since the date of this book. For example, this almanac includes the most up-to-date sales figures and profits available to the editors as of mid 2005. That means that we have typically used corporate financial data as of late-2004.
  
  
• Corporate mergers, acquisitions and downsizing are occurring at a very rapid rate. Such events may have created significant change, subsequent to the publishing of this book, within a company you are studying.
  
  
• Some of the companies in THE MIDDLE MARKET 500 are so varied in scope of business endeavors conducted that we have been unable to completely list all subsidiaries, affiliations, divisions and activities within a firm’s corporate structure.
  
  
• This volume is intended to be a general guide to a large set of firms within multiple industries. That means that researchers should look to this book for an overview and, when conducting in-depth research, should contact the specific corporations or industry associations in question for the very latest changes and data. Where possible, we have listed contact names, toll-free telephone numbers and World Wide Web site addresses for the companies, government agencies and industry associations involved so that the reader may get further details without unnecessary delay.
  
  
• We have used exhaustive efforts to locate and fairly present accurate and complete data. However, when using this book or any other source for business and industry information, the reader should use caution and diligence by conducting further research where it seems appropriate. We wish you success in your endeavors, and we trust that your experience with this book will be both satisfactory and productive.

Jack W. Plunkett
Houston, Texas
August 2005