In addition to eight Jacksonville-based public companies that reported revenue above $1 billion in 2022, Northeast Florida is home to 10 private companies that also reached that level, according to Florida Trend magazine.
Jacksonville is well represented in the magazine’s annual list of top privately owned Florida companies, in its July issue.
Florida Blue led the way with $13 billion in 2022 revenue, according to Florida Trend, which ranks private companies based on data supplied by the companies or the magazine’s estimates for companies that don’t submit data.
However, health insurer Florida Blue is actually a subsidiary of an even larger Jacksonville-based private company, GuideWell Mutual Holding Corp.
GuideWell, which was not included in the magazine’s list, has annual revenue exceeding $20 billion.
The largest private company based in Florida is Publix Super Markets Inc.
Lakeland-based Publix is not publicly traded but it does issue stock to its employees, so it files financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The supermarket giant reported $54.5 billion in 2022 revenue.
Florida Blue ranked seventh among private companies but GuideWell would have ranked fifth if it was included.
One other Jacksonville-based company is in the top 10 of private businesses: Southeastern Grocers Inc., parent of the Winn-Dixie, Fresco y Más, Harveys Supermarket chains.
Southeastern Grocers ranked eighth with estimated revenue of $7.8 billion.
Plans have progressed slower than expected since Cenntro Electric Group Ltd. announced in late 2021 it would open a Jacksonville plant, but the company said in a July 11 news release the plant is fully operational.
Cenntro, which makes electric commercial vehicles, said it began trial assembly operations at the Jacksonville plant in March and is now in full-scale production at the Westside facility.
The company, which also has a plant in operation at its New Jersey headquarters, said it is opening a third U.S. plant in California in this quarter.
“With our assembly facilities in Florida and New Jersey fully operational, we are delivering our vehicles to customers throughout the United States,” CEO Peter Wang said in the release.
Cenntro went public soon after announcing plans for the Jacksonville plant and was projecting sales of 74,800 vehicles in 2023 at the time.
However, in a delayed annual report filed June 30, Cenntro reported just 458 vehicle sales in 2022.
“From a financial perspective we navigated a challenging business, capital, and credit market environment in 2022,” Chief Financial Officer Edmond Cheng said in a June 30 news release.
“Because the Company relies on China for its supply chain, the Company continued to be impacted by China’s zero-covid policies, which were in place until the end of the year. Particularly, it impacted our ability to cost effectively source key components from suppliers due to supply chain disruptions and significantly higher freight costs,” he said.
Cenntro has not yet filed quarterly financial reports for 2023 but said it expects to file its reports for the first and second quarters by Aug. 15.
Sports merchandising giant Fanatics Inc. continues to broaden its reach, forming a live events business as part of a joint venture, according to several news reports last week.
The company is creating Fanatics Events in partnership with talent management firm IMG, with Fanatics the majority owner, the reports said.
CNBC described it as a business which seeks to “recreate the Comic-Con experience for sports collectibles.”
Fanatics expanded its sports gambling operations last month with a $225 million agreement to buy the U.S. operations of Australia-based PointsBet Holdings Ltd.
Fanatics, founded in Northeast Florida, maintains its commerce headquarters in Jacksonville.
The company began in 1995 with a store in the Orange Park Mall.
Founders Mitchell and Alan Trager sold the business in 2011 to a Philadelphia company run by current Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, and Rubin began an expansion of the company beyond its initial sports merchandising business.
The company appears to be closer to its anticipated initial public offering. CNBC also reported Fanatics held a second investor day last month with major investment banking firms.
Restaurant Brands International Inc. has only owned Firehouse Subs for about a year and a half, but apparently there is speculation about a breakup of the Toronto-based restaurant operator after a change in leadership.
However, new CEO Josh Kobza told Yahoo Finance in a recent interview he sees no reason to shake up its portfolio of the Burger King, Popeyes and Tim Hortons chains, in addition to Firehouse.
“I love all four of our brands,” Kobza told Yahoo in a story posted June 28.
“I would love to own each of them individually. I love being part of all four of them even more,” he said.
“I think what’s so exciting is that we have these incredible businesses and brands, and it’s up to us to make them even more relevant to our customers in more places around the world,” he said.
Kobza was promoted from chief operating officer to CEO on March 1 after 11 years with RBI.
The company said in a news release announcing his appointment that Kobza was “integral” to RBI’s acquisitions of Tim Hortons in 2014, Popeyes in 2017 and Jacksonville-based Firehouse in late 2021.
RBI’s three other chains operate a significant number of restaurants internationally and last month, Firehouse opened its first restaurant outside of North America in Zurich, Switzerland.
RBI acquired Firehouse Subs for $1 billion in December 2021 and soon after Kobza took over as CEO in March 2023, Firehouse also changed top management.
Mike Hancock, a former Tim Hortons executive, was brought in as chief operating officer of Firehouse in April 2022 and succeeded longtime Firehouse CEO Don Fox as top executive of the sandwich chain a year later.
RBI’s efforts to increase sales at its restaurants helped its stock rise 19% in the first six months of the year, according to Yahoo, but it said its five-year gain of 28% lagged behind the S&P 500 index’s 61% in that period.
With the outlook for homebuilding companies continuing to be strong, Raymond James analyst Buck Horne upgraded ratings on five companies that build houses in Northeast Florida.
“Of course, we are keenly aware that the optics of turning more positive on homebuilders after the group has already achieved a new all-time high is far from ideal,” Horne said in his July 14 research note.
“But we must always reassess what we missed earlier and the facts on the ground as we see them today. To that end, we have belatedly come to the realization that the magnitude of pent-up demand for single-family homes – coupled with the proven resilience of builders’ de-risked operating models – warrants a refreshed valuation approach,” he said.
Horne upgraded Toll Brothers from “outperform” to “strong buy” and upgraded Lennar, PulteGroup, KB Home and MDC Holdings from “market perform” to “outperform.”
Horne’s report did not mention the one Jacksonville-based publicly traded homebuilder, Dream Finders Homes Inc.
But Dream Finders has been the best performing Jacksonville-based stock this year, rising 184% in the first six months of 2023.
Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. has scheduled its special shareholders meeting for Aug. 16 to vote on a $1.4 billion buyout agreement by Jacksonville-based Regency Centers Corp.
The two shopping center operators agreed to the deal May 17 and are hoping to complete the merger in the third quarter, according to an updated proxy statement for Urstadt Biddle shareholders.
Connecticut-based Urstadt Biddle operates 77 properties in the New York metropolitan area with an emphasis on grocery-anchored shopping centers.
Regency operates 404 properties across the country, mostly grocery-anchored shopping centers.
Ponte Vedra Beach-based Cadrenal Therapeutics Inc., which went public in January, announced an additional sale of stock in a private placement at a price well below its initial public offering.
Cadrenal said July 12 it agreed to sell 4.286 million shares to institutional investors at $1.75 each, which was near its closing price the previous day.
The company completed the sale July 14, raising gross proceeds of about $7.5 million.
Cadrenal had 11.7 million shares outstanding when it issued its first quarter report.
The company sold 1.4 million shares at $5 each in its January IPO, but the stock has traded below that level since the IPO.
Cadrenal has no products on the market. It is developing a drug called tecarfarin, which is designed to prevent systemic thromboembolism (blood clots) of cardiac origin in patients with end-stage renal disease and atrial fibrillation.
Revalize, a Jacksonville-based company that provides software solutions for manufacturers, announced July 12 that Michael Sabin was appointed CEO.
Sabin succeeds Jim Contardi, who had been CEO since Revalize was formed in June 2021 by the merger of several companies.
Sabin was most recently CEO of SNH Automotive Group before joining Revalize.
Atlantic Beach-based Sandar Industries Inc. was acquired by Ryeco LLC, according to a July 10 news release by Jacksonville-based Heritage Capital Group Inc., Sandar’s financial advisor.
Sandar, founded in 1975, designs, engineers, manufactures, assembles and sells equipment for the pulp and paper industry.
Cartersville, Georgia-based Ryeco manufactures quality control systems and sheet break detection devices for the paper, packaging and converting industry.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.