The state's one-hundred largest employers are ranked. Food Lion headed the list with 31,270 employees. Hechts and Apple Gold tied at 100, with 2,100 employees.
The state's largest general contractors are ranked. The companies average forty-eight years in operation, but only fourteen are owned locally. Two Charlotte companies, Shelco, Inc. and McDevitt Street Bovis, are first and second on the list.
Gerald Johnson of the CHARLOTTE POST and Ernest Pitt of the WINSTON-SALEM CHRONICLE have joined forces to develop a chain of Afro-American newspapers throughout the state.
The state's top 100 private companies are ranked, using 1996 revenues. General Parts, Inc., a Raleigh-based auto-parts distributor, replaced Klaussner Furniture Industries, Inc. as the top company. Klaussner had been No. 1 since 1993.