Wal-Mart tops Fortune 500
Retail giant boosts revenue as competition slides
March 31 2003
Wal-Mart has topped the Fortune 500 list of leading companies for the second year running.
The world’s biggest retailer may be a permanent fixture at the top of the listings, compiled annually by Fortune magazine, after increasing its revenues in a year in which other companies in the listings saw profits slide.
Fortune said a tendency for US companies to be far more conservative in their financial reporting, in the wake of a series of accounting scandals, as well as the effects of a downturn in consumer spending in the US, led to a collective $69.6bn fall in profits across all 500 companies in the list. Total income across the rankings was down 6 per cent to $6.95 trillion.
However Wal-Mart increased 2002 revenue by 12 per cent to $246.5bn, $60 billion ahead of General Motors in the number two spot.
Fortune said in its introduction to the rankings: “Wal-Mart has done more than retain its title as king of the mountain. It is rewriting notions of how big corporations are supposed to behave.”
The list was also tailed by a retailer, with department store operator Neiman Marcus coming in at number 500 with revenue of $2.95bn.
