Indianapolis Premiere Credit receives IU Growth 100 Award

October 27, 2004

INDIANAPOLIS - Premiere Credit of Indianapolis, a national debt recovery business with corporate headquarters in Indianapolis, was recognized today as a leading high-growth company by the Johnson Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, a center within Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. This is the second year that Premiere Credit is being recognized as a Growth 100 business.

According to an Indiana University survey, 2004 Growth 100 firms employed 8,670 people. This represents a 37% increase in employees over last year’s award recipients. This year’s winners also reported a 25% increase in sales revenue over firms from the 2003 survey.

"At a time when news is filled with large companies laying off people, it is wonderful to report that a distinct segment of Indiana's business is growing at a rapid rate, by both adding jobs and paying taxes," said Thomas P. Hustad, interim director for the Johnson Center and also a marketing professor at IU.

"This year's 2004 Growth 100 awardees have a combined 2003 sales total of more than $1.17 billion, with an incredible growth rate averaging 58 percent. To be able to build this type of momentum in such a challenging economic climate is quite a feat,” he said.

While the majority of firms (44%) in this year's Growth 100 list continue to be service companies, more than a quarter (26%) of them are technology companies, and another 18% are in manufacturing. There were almost half as many technology firms among last year's winners.

Growth by this year's firms has been sustained, as demonstrated by the fact that 67 of the companies in this year's survey are previous winners. Twenty-one companies won the honor for the first time this year.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses provide about 75 percent of new jobs added to the economy and employ about half of the nation's workforce.

Nominees for the Growth 100 Award must be privately held Indiana businesses and have at least $500,000 in annual sales or have raised a significant amount of funding. They were identified through an analysis process that is based upon High Performance Organization research conducted by The Johnson Center.

Here's more about the Growth 100 firms, by the numbers:

• Of the 88 businesses, 33 are family-owned and three are minority-owned. Women own seven of the companies.
• Average sales revenue for the companies was $13,313,474, a 25 percent increase over last year's reported $10,665,266.
• While Growth 100 companies can be found all around the state, nearly half, or 46 companies, continue to be located in c entral Indiana. Eight companies were reported in Allen County and nine were in Monroe County.