Diversity-Owned Businesses Receive Recognition

Diversity-Owned Businesses Receive Recognition

DiversityBusiness, a multicultural business internet site, announced the Div500, the 6th annual listing of the nations' top 500 diversity-owned businesses. Ranging in revenue size from $20 million to over $2 billion, the companies listed on the Div500 represent the nations' top multicultural earners and challenge the long-held notion that diversity-owned businesses are small or insignificant.

At the top of 2005's Div500 are Software House International, Inc., headquartered in Somerset, NJ, with $2.5 billion in 2004 revenues, Burt Automotive, based in Centennial, CO, with 1.8 billion in 2004 revenues, World Wide Technology, Inc., headquartered in St. Louis, with $1.4 billion in 2004 revenues and Omega World Travel, based in Fairfax, VA, with $1.2 billion in 2004 revenues. These four businesses are Asian Pacific American-, Hispanic-, African American-, and Woman-owned respectively. The top companies will be honored at a special awards ceremony at DiversityBusiness's 6th Annual Multicultural Business Conference, taking place March 29 - March 31, 2006 at the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas, Nevada.

"Diversity-owned businesses contribute over $1.4 trillion in sales to the U.S. economy," said Kenton Clarke, CEO of Computer Consulting Associates International, the company that built DiversityBusiness. " It is no longer "just the right thing" to do business with diversity suppliers. Because of recent economic and demographic trends and changes, major corporations are realizing that having a diverse supplier base positively impacts their business revenue from this sector of buyers".

The Div500

The Div500 is a classification that represents the top 500 diversity-owned (women, Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native American and other minority groups) businesses in the U.S., in sectors such as technology, manufacturing, food service and professional services. Major corporations, government agencies and college/universities throughout the country that do business with multicultural and women-owned businesses use the list The Div500 is produced annually by DiversityBusiness, the nation's leading multicultural B2B Internet portal that links large organizational buyers to multicultural product and service businesses.

"The Div500 companies are the heroes of diversity-owned business in America ," said Kenton Clarke. These are the people that have conquered the hurdles and made the sacrifices, building and strengthening their communities, providing jobs and helping to keep the fabric of the U.S. economy together."

For the complete list of winning companies, please visit: http://www.diversitybusiness.com/Resources/DivLists/2005/.

Launched in 1999, DiversityBusiness with over 30,000 members is the largest organization of diversity-owned businesses throughout the United States that provide goods and services to Fortune 1000 companies, government agencies and colleges and universities. DiversityBusiness performs research on diversity businesses for such leading publications as Forbes, Fortune magazine and numerous other media outlets. The site has gained national recognition and has won numerous awards for its content and design. DiversityBusiness facilitates contacts and communication, streamlines business processes and provides vital business news and information.