Wal-Mart keeps on top of Fortune 500
Wal-Mart, the discount retailer that owns the Asda supermarket chain in Britain, has been crowned as the biggest company in the US for the second successive year.
The retailer has extended its lead at the top of the Fortune 500 list, the eagerly anticipated ranking of corporate America by revenue. Wal-Mart displaced carmaker General Motors for the first time in 2001 and last year the gap yawned further. With sales of $244.5bn, the retailer turned over $60bn more than GM.
The performance proved that the 2001 result was not an aberration. Wal-Mart was only the third company to top the Fortune 500 ranking since it was first published in 1955.
The retailer, based in Arkansas, has carried out relentless expansion and is one of the bidders for Safeway to consolidate its presence in Britain. In a demonstration of the robust nature of the business, its revenues grew by 12% last year even as the combined sales of the top 500 shrank by 6% - only the sixth time that the total has contracted.
The company is the biggest American-owned employer, with 1.3m staff around the world. The next biggest employer, McDonald's, has 413,000 staff.
Wal-Mart, founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, is well known for its eccentric management style, including the morning cheer, an idea Mr Walton adopted after visiting a tennis ball factory in Korea. Another of the company's mantras is the "ten foot" rule - that whenever members of staff are within ten feet of a customer they greet them and ask if they need any help. It has 3,200 stores in the US and another 1,100 overseas.
Wal-Mart's profits topped $8bn in 2002 but that was only good enough to take the seventh spot on a separate ranking by profit. The world's largest financial services company, Citigroup, which made $15.2bn, topped that table. General Electric was second most profitable, recording a surplus, of $14.1bn and Exxon Mobil was third with $11.5bn.
Microsoft is still more highly valued by Wall Street. The software company has a market capitalisation of about $266bn, followed by General Electric and Exxon Mobil. Wal-Mart is fourth, valued at $218bn. The combined market capitalisation of the 500 fell by 26%, in line with the slide in stock markets.
Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee shop chain, made its first appearance in the main rankings, arriving at number 465.
The retailer has extended its lead at the top of the Fortune 500 list, the eagerly anticipated ranking of corporate America by revenue. Wal-Mart displaced carmaker General Motors for the first time in 2001 and last year the gap yawned further. With sales of $244.5bn, the retailer turned over $60bn more than GM.
The performance proved that the 2001 result was not an aberration. Wal-Mart was only the third company to top the Fortune 500 ranking since it was first published in 1955.
The retailer, based in Arkansas, has carried out relentless expansion and is one of the bidders for Safeway to consolidate its presence in Britain. In a demonstration of the robust nature of the business, its revenues grew by 12% last year even as the combined sales of the top 500 shrank by 6% - only the sixth time that the total has contracted.
The company is the biggest American-owned employer, with 1.3m staff around the world. The next biggest employer, McDonald's, has 413,000 staff.
Wal-Mart, founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, is well known for its eccentric management style, including the morning cheer, an idea Mr Walton adopted after visiting a tennis ball factory in Korea. Another of the company's mantras is the "ten foot" rule - that whenever members of staff are within ten feet of a customer they greet them and ask if they need any help. It has 3,200 stores in the US and another 1,100 overseas.
Wal-Mart's profits topped $8bn in 2002 but that was only good enough to take the seventh spot on a separate ranking by profit. The world's largest financial services company, Citigroup, which made $15.2bn, topped that table. General Electric was second most profitable, recording a surplus, of $14.1bn and Exxon Mobil was third with $11.5bn.
Microsoft is still more highly valued by Wall Street. The software company has a market capitalisation of about $266bn, followed by General Electric and Exxon Mobil. Wal-Mart is fourth, valued at $218bn. The combined market capitalisation of the 500 fell by 26%, in line with the slide in stock markets.
Starbucks, the ubiquitous coffee shop chain, made its first appearance in the main rankings, arriving at number 465.
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