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City Slickers
State's fastest-growing urban businesses cited
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Business New Haven
3/17/2003
By: BNH
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Lt. Gov. M. Jodi Rell has announced winners of the 2003 "Inner City 10" entrepreneurship awards competition, celebrating the fastest growing companies in Connecticut's inner cities.
In its third year, the Inner City 10 initiative is part of Gov. John G. Rowland's Inner City Business Strategy, a statewide plan to promote urban revitalization through market-driven business development.
The national Inner City 100, hosted by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Inc. magazine, will take place April 24-25. Connecticut is the only state to stage a statewide competition to identify nominees for the Inner City 100 competition.
"These ten success stories remind us all of the opportunities for business growth and expansion that exist in Connecticut's inner cities," explained Rell. "These companies have demonstrated tremendous leadership and vision and are helping to change perceptions about our urban centers as places to grow a business."
The Connecticut Inner City 10 Entrepreneurship Awards is an annual competition in which urban companies are nominated and ranked to render a list of the state's ten fastest-growing inner-city companies.
Award-winners are promoted to showcase the potential advantages - including financial success and positive community impact - of located a business in an urban environment.
Of the ten 2003 winners (exact rankings were to have been announced after this edition went to press), a majority are from Hartford or East Hartford. Two - Kenneth Boroson Architects and Svigals & Partners, likewise an architectural firm - hail from New Haven. A third, Q-Tran Inc., calls Bridgeport home.
To qualify, companies needed to provide detailed financial information and meet criteria including:
o Be headquartered in an inner city or house at least 51 percent of physical operations there;
o Have at least ten full-time employees at the end of 2001;
o Have a five-year operational sales history reflecting revenues in excess of $75,000 for 1997, an increase in 2001 sales over 2000 and minimum 2001 sales of $1 million.
Applicants were ranked based on percentage increase in gross revenues between 1997 and 2001. The ten finalists with the highest five-year compounded growth rates were selected.
Deadline for entries for the 2004 Connecticut Inner City 10 will be November 3. Information about the initiative is available at www.decd.org or by calling 860-270-8004.
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