Welcome to the NorthBay biz Top 500 bonus issue. In 2007, the news was dominated by the early start of campaigning for the 2008 Presidential elections, a worsening of the housing slump driven by the subprime mortgage fiasco, a “surge” strategy that has proven successful enough to take the war in Iraq off the front pages and the continuing debate on the best methods to end illegal immigration into the country. However, despite the uncertainties that come with war and the continued high cost of energy, 2007 saw the nation’s overall economy continue to expand for the fourth year in a row.
The previous three-year retreat—broughtaability by the spring and then a slow return to a growing market beginning this fall. Overall, the North Bay’s diverse economy continued to prove resilient during 2007. Recession worries cloud the economic outlook for 2008, although with continued low unemployment and controlled inflation, those fears stand a good chance of never materializing.
While the overall business climate in 2007 had a few bright spots, it also had many severe challenges making for a very competitive environment. So we’d like to congratulate each company that made this year’s Top 500 list. It took creativity and courage to make the difficult decisions that resulted in positioning each company for success.
We strive to make the NorthBay biz Top 500 list as accurate and up-to-date as possible. Our database has really grown and improved over the past six years as we’ve migrated to assembling more information online, simplifying the process and enhancing accuracy.
Some companies provide their revenue numbers as estimates because their fiscal years are incomplete. We report those numbers as verified because the company supplied them. When the company can’t or won’t divulge revenues, we estimate based on history, research and comparative industry data. If a company is headquartered here, we count all its revenues. If a company does business here but is headquartered elsewhere, we count only its North Bay-generated revenue. Six zeros have been omitted from all the revenue numbers on the list because of space constraints.
Therefore the first four companies on this year’s list reported revenues in the billions, and every other company reported revenues in the millions. And finally, because of available space restrictions, we were unable to publish every company profile that was submitted. We will post the complete set of Top 500 company profiles on our website. We work hard on this issue to make it as complete and accurate as possible. If you discover any inaccuracies, or if we’ve overlooked a company that merits inclusion, please let us know and we’ll correct it for the future. The Top 500 list will be posted on our website (www.northbaybiz.com) and you can contact us there if you have any input about this year’s list.
We certainly hope you enjoy perusing the Top 500 and find it interesting, informative and useful in running your business. The North Bay possesses tremendous economic power and vitality, and with a little luck and continued hard work, let’s hope 2008 turns out to be a good year for us all.
