St. Louis still has 7, maybe 8, companies in Fortune 500
We all know that Anheuser-Busch doesn’t qualify for Fortune 500 status any more, but it isn’t as if all the big headquarters have vanished. St. Louis officially has seven companies on the new list, and can claim eight if you buy an argument that the Regional Chamber and Growth Association made last year. (The difference depends on how you treat the dual headquarters of Smurfit-Stone Container. Fortune lists it as a Chicago company, but the CEO and many key corporate functions are in Creve Coeur, a suburb of St. Louis.)
If you’re looking ahead, we have an excellent chance of getting another company on the list in future years. Energizer Holdings, at No. 522, falls short of the No. 500 spot by just $303 million in revenue.
Also worth noting: Emerson cracked the top 100 for the first time first time in at least 15 years. I believe it’s the first time St. Louis has had a Fortune 100 company since McDonnell Douglas was acquired by Boeing in 1997.
Here’s the list of St. Louis companies in the Fortune 500:
- 94. Emerson
- 115. Express Scripts
- 235. Monsanto
- 327. Ameren
- 353. Peabody Energy
- 356. Smurfit-Stone Container
- 385. Charter Communications
- 439. Graybar Electric
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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David Nicklaus has covered St. Louis business for more than 25 years. His column appears three days a week on the Post-Dispatch business page. 
We’re counting Smurfit and Charter? I doubt if Emerson, Express Scripts, Ameren, Peabody and Graybar are interested in being included with the two bankrupt companies.
So where do we rank out of the top 25 metros?
What’s more interesting is what companies are on the Fortune 500 list that USED to be St. Louis companies (A-B, AG Edwards, Purina, etc.). Does anyone know any more?
May Co. can be attributed to a portion of Macy’s.
One would think this ranking was put together before Express Scripts’ recent acquisition. Given their own organic growth, they have a good chance at being a Top 100 firm next year. EMR may fall out due to the economic cycle, though.
When is the last time/ever that we had two top 100 firms?
Ladont–the rankings are based upon revenue. Bankrupt or not, Charter and Smurfit bring in billions of revenue.
Moorlander, that’s a difficult question to answer. Fortune lists companies by hometown, but to get an accurate metro-area count you’d have to sit down and figure out, for instance, that Best Buy’s headquarters in Richfield, Minn., is part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. I’ve criticized the RCGA in the past for putting out misleading news releases that compare St. Louis to other cities, but don’t count the other cities’ suburban companies.
Fortune has a map that might make such comparisons easier, but it has its flaws. I zoomed in on St. Louis and there doesn’t seem to be a marker for Express Scripts.
Paul,
You sent me to the archives for a history lesson. In 1995 and 1996, St. Louis actually had three top-100 companies: McDonnell Douglas, May Department Stores and Anheuser-Busch. By 1997, McDonnell was the only Fortune 100 company in town.
Going back a few more years, to when only industrial companies qualified for Fortune 500 status, St. Louis was better represented near the top of the list. In 1985, 10 St. Louis companies made the 500, and six of those — McDonnell, General Dynamics, Monsanto, Anheuser-Busch, Ralston Purina and Emerson — were in the top 100.
I don’t know a lot about these rankings, so this may be a silly question, but where are Edward Jones and Enterprise?
Mike–these rankings are based on revenue. The companies you name likely do not have the revenue (or they do not disclose the relevant information) needed to crack the Top 500.
Edward Jones’ parent company, Jones Financial, ranks No. 568 on Fortune’s list. Enterprise, as a private company, doesn’t file financial statements with any government agency, so it doesn’t get counted by Fortune.