IW 50 Best Manufacturers -- Gas Hogs

It's not as though you need to be told that petroleum is king. After all, filling your car or truck is testament enough that the big oil companies are enjoying record revenues and profits, thus putting them on the throne, complete with cape and scepter.

But to drive the point home, 15 companies on IndustryWeek's fourth annual list of the 50 best U.S. manufacturers fall under the petroleum and coal products industry.

And of the $1.27 trillion in revenue for all 50 companies on the list, petroleum and coal companies contributed $986 billion -- or 77% of the total revenue. The leader? Exxon Mobil Corp., with 2005 revenues of $363 billion, contributes 28% to total revenues and nearly 40% to the petroleum and coal products revenues.

IW 50 Tables
IW 50 Best U.S. Manufacturers Performance In 2005

33 Industry Leaders

With fears of supply disruption, increased demand in China and India and a spike in crude oil prices, it isn't hard to figure out why petroleum rules.

But for hard numbers, IndustryWeek's list considered financial measures that pertain to operational efficiency and market success. We selected this year's top performers by comparing financial performance during the past three years (2003 to 2005) in revenue growth, return on equity (ROE) and profit margin.

In addition to the market metrics, manufacturing specific metrics were chosen to address the capital/asset intensive nature of manufacturing. These include asset turnover, inventory turnover and return on assets (ROA).

The six variables are weighted, with the most recent year contributing 50% of the calculation in each area. The IW 50 is culled from the IW U.S. 500 list, the largest publicly traded manufacturing companies in the United States.

So how did the other industries on the IW 50 perform? In terms of revenue, the chemicals industry -- led by Procter & Gamble Co.'s $56.7 billion 2005 revenues -- contributed $86.7 billion (6.8%) to the total revenue generated by all 50 companies on the list. Following chemicals, computers and other electronics added $61.4 billion (4.8%). Dell Inc. led the pack with $55.9 billion in revenue.

Adding 3.7% of the revenue generated by the top companies was the two beverages companies on the list -- PepsiCo Inc. ($32.6 billion) and Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. ($15 billion). In total, there were 16 industries represented on this year's list. With petroleum and coal products dominating, it begs the question, What if petroleum and coal were eliminated from the list?

IW 50 Best U.S. Manufacturers Performance In 2005

IndustryWeek compares financial performance in six categories to determine if companies should be placed on the IW 50 list. Here are this year's results.

US2006 Rank	Primary Industry	Company	Profit Margin	Sales Turns	Inv. Turns	Rev. Growth	ROA	ROE
418	Computer Software	Activision Inc.	9.84	1.08	22.70	48.35	14.28	16.61
41	Petroleum & Coal Products	Amerada Hess Corp.	5.43	1.20	23.49	35.52	7.61	22.19
361	Computers & Other Electronic Products	Amphenol Corp.	11.41	0.94	4.05	18.15	15.79	42.84
64	Beverages	Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.	12.23	0.91	14.25	0.68	11.37	68.93
404	Publishing & Printing	Autodesk Inc.	21.59	1.12	12.78	23.46	28.80	50.75
2	Petroleum & Coal Products	Chevron Corp.	7.25	1.55	39.46	27.34	15.13	31.17
380	Leather Products	Coach Inc.	22.72	1.27	2.31	29.47	37.78	49.68
85	Chemicals	Colgate-Palmolive Co.	11.86	1.34	6.10	7.68	15.58	108.51
135	Primary Metals	Commercial Metals Co.	4.33	2.83	8.42	38.26	14.37	43.26
4	Petroleum & Coal Products	ConocoPhillips	7.52	1.68	36.13	32.89	14.57	31.67
14	Computers & Other Electronic Products	Dell Inc.	6.39	2.42	88.81	13.62	15.39	55.08
395	Machinery	Donaldson Co. Inc.	6.93	1.44	7.39	12.77	11.04	20.13
235	Publishing & Printing	Electronic Arts Inc.	16.11	0.72	20.44	5.81	14.82	18.82
209	Petroleum & Coal Products	EOG Resources Inc.	34.79	0.47	7.23	59.39	21.72	42.76
1	Petroleum & Coal Products	Exxon Mobil Corp.	9.95	1.74	19.70	23.91	18.50	35.51
308	Chemicals	Georgia Gulf Corp	4.20	2.27	10.73	3.06	9.91	35.60
210	Petroleum & Coal Products	Giant Industries Inc.	2.90	3.64	28.43	42.57	14.79	47.99
155	Motor Vehicles	Harley-Davidson Inc.	16.91	1.08	15.35	6.64	17.50	29.82
474	Publishing & Printing	Harte-Hanks Inc.	10.08	1.28	58.08	10.14	13.82	20.02
279	Furniture & Fixtures	HNI Corp.	5.61	2.15	18.53	17.06	13.45	20.54
231	Petroleum & Coal Products	Holly Corp.	5.22	2.81	24.39	43.02	17.06	49.32
440	Primary Metals	Lone Star Technologies Inc.	17.40	1.31	5.34	32.92	34.58	63.07
12	Petroleum & Coal Products	Marathon Oil Corp.	4.79	2.22	15.03	27.47	12.94	37.38
362	Primary Metals	Maverick Tube Corp.	9.65	1.44	3.35	22.59	17.19	28.92
148	Publishing & Printing	McGraw-Hill Cos. Inc.	14.06	0.94	7.29	14.34	14.40	28.29
381	Primary Metals	Metal Management Inc.	5.42	3.55	16.55	57.09	22.70	45.48
82	Petroleum & Coal Products	Murphy Oil Corp.	7.13	1.86	28.76	42.07	15.51	31.95
370	Petroleum & Coal Products	Newfield Exploration Co.	19.75	0.35	18.05	30.26	8.04	17.25
322	Petroleum & Coal Products	Noble Energy Inc.	30.81	0.24	17.19	63.48	18.75	44.23
75	Primary Metals	Nucor Corp.	10.32	1.78	9.23	11.64	21.36	37.91
60	Chemicals	Occidental Petroleum Corp.	32.48	0.62	8.65	41.22	24.69	50.06
69	Motor Vehicles	Paccar Inc.	8.06	1.02	22.88	23.35	9.27	30.12
29	Beverages	PepsiCo Inc.	12.52	1.03	8.77	11.28	14.57	30.16
351	Railcars, Ships, & Other Trans. Equip.	Polaris Industries Inc.	7.51	2.48	7.73	5.72	18.07	39.61
13	Chemicals	Procter & Gamble Co.	12.79	0.92	5.91	10.38	12.72	42.00
156	Communications Equipment	Qualcomm Inc.	37.78	0.45	9.94	16.25	19.81	22.18
339	Primary Metals	Quanex Corp.	7.88	1.79	12.18	34.84	16.69	30.99
226	Metals	Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.	6.09	1.91	6.64	14.37	13.14	24.98
500	Food	Sanderson Farms Inc.	7.02	2.26	10.31	-4.38	18.84	25.29
28	Petroleum & Coal Products	Sunoco Inc.	2.89	3.40	35.84	32.40	12.06	60.61
268	Publishing & Printing	Symantec Corp.	20.76	0.46	23.54	38.11	12.03	22.10
59	Petroleum & Coal Products	Tesoro Corp.	3.06	3.25	19.34	35.22	12.44	38.20
270	Motor Vehicles	Thor Industries Inc.	4.76	2.98	14.34	16.94	15.97	23.80
399	Apparel	Timberland Co.	10.51	1.99	5.34	4.34	21.73	32.18
477	Publishing & Printing	Valassis Communications Inc.	8.43	1.62	31.65	8.33	12.93	67.89
10	Petroleum & Coal Products	Valero Energy Corp.	4.37	2.51	23.47	50.43	18.51	46.04
421	Machinery	Varian Medical Systems Inc.	14.94	1.05	5.40	11.90	17.65	33.66
457	Motor Vehicles	Wabash National Corp.	9.15	2.21	10.65	16.58	25.71	67.50
208	Computers & Other Electronic Products	Western Digital Corp.	5.45	2.29	20.23	19.43	17.12	40.69
202	Petroleum & Coal Products	Western Gas Resources Inc.	5.24	1.70	28.72	28.96	11.28	30.42
Median			8.79	1.58	14.69	22.97	15.45	35.55
Average			11.49	1.67	18.02	24.35	16.68	38.68

33 Industry Leaders

IndustryWeek applies the IW 50 Best Manufacturers formula to the IW U.S. 500 list to extract the top performers in each of the 33 industries on the IW U.S. 500 list.

US2006 Rank	Primary Industry	Company	Profit Margin	Sales Turns	Inv. Turns	Rev. Growth	ROA	ROE
23	Aerospace & Defense	Lockheed Martin Corp.	4.90	1.34	18.32	4.75	7.14	25.99
399	Apparel	Timberland Co.	10.51	1.99	5.34	4.34	21.73	32.18
29	Beverages	PepsiCo Inc.	12.52	1.03	8.77	11.28	14.57	30.16
60	Chemicals	Occidental Petroleum Corp.	32.48	0.62	8.65	41.22	24.69	50.06
156	Communications Equipment	Qualcomm Inc.	37.78	0.45	9.94	16.25	19.81	22.18
418	Computer Software	Activision Inc.	9.84	1.08	22.70	48.35	14.28	16.61
14	Computers & Other Electronic Products	Dell Inc.	6.39	2.42	88.81	13.62	15.39	55.08
175	Electrical Equipment & Appliances	Rockwell Automation Inc.	10.79	1.11	5.43	13.42	12.85	29.02
74	Fabricated Metal Products	Illinois Tool Works Inc.	11.57	1.13	6.73	10.15	13.17	19.60
500	Food	Sanderson Farms Inc.	7.02	2.26	10.31	-4.38	18.84	25.29
279	Furniture & Fixtures	HNI Corp.	5.61	2.15	18.53	17.06	13.45	20.54
471	Instruments	Waters Corp.	17.44	0.81	3.52	4.86	13.83	29.76
380	Leather Products	Coach Inc.	22.72	1.27	2.31	29.47	37.78	49.68
421	Machinery	Varian Medical Systems Inc.	14.94	1.05	5.40	11.90	17.65	33.66
180	Medical Instruments & Equipment	Stryker Corp.	13.86	0.99	3.07	14.29	16.53	24.53
426	Metal Products	Grant Prideco Inc.	14.00	0.88	2.39	42.76	14.06	26.79
226	Metals	Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.	6.09	1.91	6.64	14.37	13.14	24.98
254	Miscellaneous	Alliant Techsystems Inc.	5.48	0.93	17.47	18.38	5.42	27.21
98	Motor Vehicle Parts	Cummins Inc.	5.55	1.44	7.06	17.54	8.43	39.26
270	Motor Vehicles	Thor Industries Inc.	4.76	2.98	14.34	16.94	15.97	23.80
62	Paper	Kimberly-Clark Corp.	9.86	0.98	6.33	5.43	9.22	21.33
1	Petroleum & Coal Products	Exxon Mobil Corp.	9.95	1.74	19.70	23.91	18.50	35.51
17	Pharmaceuticals	Johnson & Johnson	20.61	0.87	3.62	6.69	19.53	32.73
424	Plastics	AptarGroup Inc.	7.25	1.02	4.97	6.43	7.28	11.46
75	Primary Metals	Nucor Corp.	10.32	1.78	9.23	11.64	21.36	37.91
404	Publishing & Printing	Autodesk Inc.	21.59	1.12	12.78	23.46	28.80	50.75
351	Railcars, Ships, & Other Trans. Equip.	Polaris Industries Inc.	7.51	2.48	7.73	5.72	18.07	39.61
49	Rubber Products	Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.	1.16	1.26	5.59	7.36	1.38	313.19
252	Stone, Clay, Glass & Concrete Products	Vulcan Materials Co.	13.43	0.81	11.67	17.97	10.61	19.30
134	Textiles	Mohawk Industries Inc.	5.41	0.83	4.48	12.58	8.14	13.43
7	Tobacco	Altria Group Inc.	10.66	0.91	6.37	9.20	10.27	33.97
265	Wood Products	Louisiana-Pacific Corp.	17.53	0.72	7.82	-8.79	13.20	25.77