Texas Construction presents its annual Top Contractors ranking. The list grew from last year's 120 to 125 this year, reflecting a resilient construction marketplace that continued to demonstrate strength in the face of tough economic times.

In addition to being a statewide ranking, the list also includes total company revenue for work performed outside the Texas border. The ranking is also industrywide, meaning it includes all general contractors from building and heavy/highway firms to construction management companies and all general contracting firms in between.

To obtain this information, we sent surveys to more than 600 contracting companies in Texas and some out-of-state contractors with offices in Texas. The information provided in the list is derived from each firm's returned survey form, and ranking is based on each firm's 2003 reported revenue for work performed in the state.

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Last year's Top 120 Contractors reported approximately $14.6 billion in 2002 revenue. Total revenue reported dipped to $13 million, primarily due to a change in the way we reported earnings this year. Last year's total included a large percentage reported by one company of revenue derived from the single-family sector. This year's ranking excluded single-family revenue. And while the list this year increased by five companies, last year's lowest revenue ranking happened to cut off at $12 million; this year six companies that reported between $6 million and $12 million made the list.

Taking the top spot in this year's Top Contractors ranking was Austin Industries of Dallas, with approximately $985.4 million total reported from its Texas operations for 2003 and $1.2 billion for overall projects. The majority of the company's revenue continues to be in transportation projects, but Austin Industries is also a leader in general building, topping $167 million in that category and reporting more than $197 million from industrial work.

Houston-based Kellogg, Brown & Root took the runner up spot with $745 million total in Texas. The bulk of the company's work is from the industrial sector topping $305 million in that category. San Antonio-based Zachry finished third with $517 million, the majority of which is from highway/heavy and industrial work. Williams Brothers Construction of Houston moved up from last year's eleventh spot to number four with $427 million, 100 percent of which came from transportation projects. Finishing out the top five and the overall leader in the general building category was Gilbane Building of Houston with $414 million.

In the past, we have ranked Dallas-based Centex by its total reported in-state revenue.
This year, while Centex reported approximately $1.138 billion from its Texas operations for 2003, because the bulk of its revenue-nearly 75 percent-is derived from a core of non-commercial residential construction, we did not include that amount for purposes of our rankings, which are based on commercial building only. Despite that reduction, Centex still ranked in the top ten, testimony to the fact that the company remains a key player in Texas' commercial construction marketplace. It is also one of the few, if only, major contractors working in both the commercial and single-family sectors in the state.

Findings from this year's ranking show that 42 contractors reported earnings in excess of $100 million, down by three from last year. While the reported revenue for work performed in-state was approximately $13 billion, total revenue from all projects including national and international amounted to about $44 billion.

At the end of the Top Contractors ranking we also ranked the top companies by revenue in seven different categories.

125 Top Contractors
Top Contractors Break Out List