Where Are They Now?

What happens to a company after reaching number one on the Inc. 500? Find out the current status of the past 14 top-spot holders.

Former number ones

Who's gone public? Who's gone bust? Revisit the 14 companies that have occupied the top spot

'82
ALTOS COMPUTER SYSTEMS
San Jose, Calif.
In 1990 this pioneering maker of microcomputers--having suffered a multimillion-dollar loss followed by nearly two years of flat sales thanks to intensifying competition from giants like Hewlett-Packard Co. and NCR Corp.--was acquired for $94 million by the Acer Group, a Taiwan-based manufacturer of personal computers. Altos had gone public at the end of 1982 and saw revenues peak at $176 million in 1988 and then fall to $140 million in 1989, the same year it experienced an operating loss of $15 million.

'83
SIGAL CONSTRUCTION CORP.
Washington, D.C.
Twenty years after he founded the general-contracting firm, Gerald Sigal is still at the helm. Revenues reached a high of $178 million in 1990, only to come crashing down the following year when Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait sent Washington real estate prices plummeting. Sigal immediately branched into such new areas as cost consulting and international joint ventures, and revenues have been climbing steadily since, to $105 million last year.

'84
PEDUS SERVICES INC.
Los Angeles
Pedus, a provider of security and janitorial services, declined to offer any update. Former CEO Dick Dotts, who left Pedus shortly after the company topped the list, has been running a competing firm, Diversified Maintenance Services, in South Pasadena, Calif., for the past 11 years.

'85
HERBALIFE INTERNATIONAL
Los Angeles
After coming in as #1 with sales of $423 million, this direct marketer of health, diet, and personal-care products became the target of several investigations, which sent sales tumbling to a low of $120 million in 1988. The company was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing. Since then, by expanding its operations overseas, Herbalife has grown into a $1.2-billion company. It has operations in 36 countries and its own satellite-dish network that broadcasts in 12 languages. Founder Mark Hughes retains 55% of the public company.

'86
ABC SUPPLY CO.
Beloit, Wis.
Over the past 18 years ABC Supply has grown into the nation's largest roofing and siding wholesaler, thanks to a strategy of acquiring and consolidating ailing businesses. Founder and CEO Ken Hendricks projects 1997 revenues at $1 billion, up from $789 million in 1996. He has no plans to take the family-run company public. "We're a husband and wife and five children running a billion-dollar boutique," he says.

'87
AMERICAN PHOTO GROUP CORP.
Atlanta
As the 1987 Inc. 500 issue was going to press, CEO Steve Bostic was negotiating the sale of his #1 film-processing company to Kodak. After the sale, Bostic spent the next several years doing what he calls "significant rather than successful" work with several nonprofit organizations. Most recently he launched the American Intercontinental University, a for-profit international school with 3,000 students on four campuses around the globe.

'88
AMERICAN CENTRAL GAS
Tulsa
"This has been almost like an episode of Dallas," says Kevin Sullivan, talking about what has happened to the natural-gas-services company he founded with three Tulsa investors in 1983. After the business peaked at $420 million in revenues in 1990, the four founders began squabbling and have been embroiled in breach-of-contract litigation since 1993. CEO Steve Jackson, a founder, hasn't returned our calls, but Sullivan, now living in California, says most company assets have been sold.

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