Lone Star Steakhouse excels on best-small-companies list

Nation's Restaurant News, June 27, 1994

NEW YORK -- As an incumbent on one of the nation's most-watched annual listings of excellence in financial performance, Lone Star Steakhouse stood out in Business-Week's yearly ranking of the top 100 companies in the United States.

While Lone Star was No. 14 on the list of companies this year, it ranked the highest of all companies, regardless of industry, that were ranked last year.

Lone Star had the highest market capitalization, at more than $700 million, of the 100 diverse companies that made the list.

The Wichita, Kan.-based steak-house operator was No. 2 in sales growth.

The companies ranked on the list were the high achievers from an original pool of more than 9,000 small enterprises with revenues between $10 million and $150 million.

Rankings for Business-Week's list were based on three-year sales growth, earnings growth, return on invested capital and market capitalization.

BusinessWeek reported that of the total of seven restaurant concerns that were ranked, Lone Star was the only one that placed within the top five in such categories as sales growth, earnings growth, market value and profitability.

In the first quarter ended March 22, Lone Star reported a 114-percent increase in net income, to $5.2 million, on a 126-percent gain in revenues, to $36.2 million.

The remaining six restaurant companies on the list were Papa John's International, Landry's Seafood, Pollo Tropical, Taco Cabana, The Cheesecake Factory and Eateries Inc.