This article as published in Electrical Wholesaling is an edited version of a larger article from Electrical Construction and Maintenance (EC&M) magazine, our sister publication for electrical contractors, engineers and maintenance professionals. Rather than present our edited version, you can click here and go to EC&M's full original.
The electrical contracting industry’s upper echelon — those slotted on EC&M’s annual Top 50 Electrical Contractors list for 2013 — appeared to edge closer to “escape velocity” in 2012 from business-activity lows registered in the wake of the Great Recession. Whether that’s really been attained, though, is an open question, as the economy appears to still be walking a tightrope between modest growth and retrenchment.
Fig. 1. Fig. 1. Revenue by the Top 50 reached its highest level in five years.
As a group, this year’s Top 50 firms (see the list on page 30), ranked by 2012 revenues reported via the annual proprietary EC&M survey, racked up 9.4% more for the year over 2011. Collectively, the leading companies generated $14 billion in revenue — up from the $12.8 billion reported by 2012’s Top 50 firms based on 2011 revenue.
Inflation notwithstanding, that raw revenue number is the Top 50’s highest in at least the last five years — going back to 2007 when revenue came in at just over $13.1 billion. The low point in that span was 2010, when collective revenues were clocked at $11.9 billion, and the industry was still regaining its footing.