Rock-Solid Revenues and Rocket Growth

We’re 15 years into our Ingram’s 100 ranking of the region’s top private companies, and for anyone wondering about the health of the regional economy, there’s some encouraging news:

Nearly half of this year’s Top 100—47, to be exact—experienced year-over-year revenue growth by double-digit percentages.

Leading the way there was Cable Dahmer Auto Group, where owner Carlos Ledezma had his team firing on all cylinders. The parent of multiple vehicle dealerships in the region soared up the list by an unprecedented 31 spots, nearly cracking the Top 10 in the process. Always tough to do when the baseline revenue numbers are so big, but Cable Dahmer knocked out revenue growth of 338.14 percent.

Thanks to the miracle of modern acquisitions, two other companies bested the 100 percent growth margin: With its merger to become GFT, the former TranSystems Corp. saw revenues spike 239.23 percent. And Propio Language Services continued its hot streak of top-line growth as Marco Assis saw his team put up a 163.89 percent pop over 2023 revenues.

Only 18 of this year’s Top 100 hit insurmountable growth barriers in 2024, with one more precisely flat on top-line changes. 

Those are some of the highlights—you’ll find more, and some analysis of the group metrics—in the introduction to this year’s Ingram’s 100. 

Is this list comprehensive? Not entirely: A number of major players choose not to disclose their top lines. We invite them, as always, to jump into the pool for future consideration. We hope all will in future years.

Beyond the Numbers

While it’s always nice to see such broad-based growth, we would do well as a region to recognize the fundamentals that allow for it.

No. 1,  as is always the case, is the people. Most everyone associated with the Ingram’s 100 has also earned a spot on the Ingram’s 250, our annual September showcasing of the top executive talent and influential figures in the regional business ecosystem.

They aren’t just good at what they do; they’re good people. One of the factors that distinguish Kansas from most every other market in the country (and especially the major population centers) is the willingness of the executive class here to engage with aspiring entrepreneurs. It’s a cultural element that defines the business community here.

That may take the form of simply being willing to meet a would-be start-up dreamer for a cup of coffee, it could be informal mentoring through a sustained relationship, or it could be formal engagement with the likes of the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program. Now 30 years into its mission, HEMP was founded out of that same sense of paying-it-forward by Barnett Helzberg, Jr., whose nationwide chain of jewelry stores became part of the Warren Buffet empire in the 1990s.

We’ve spent decades here producing content valued by site-selection consultants and executives with expansion-minded companies, touting the assets that make this region the ideal place to own and operate a business. The centrality for firms doing business nationally, the access to transportation for both business and personal travel, the low cost of living that helps attract talent, the cultural and civic amenities that keep people here, the exceptional level of health-care assets available, the quality of public education overall and the strength of the region’s public research universities and private colleges.

Another piece of the success pie is the forward-thinking of those business leaders and the teams they’ve assembled. Also in this issue, you’ll find breakouts on 17 organizations, big, mid-size and small, that are being recognized as our 2025 Best Companies to Work For. What you see with their workplace design and benefits programming dovetails precisely with the other factors that produce the impressive top-line performances of so many in the Ingram’s 100 and make Kansas City a great place for people to build careers, raise families and maybe even start companies of their own.

When you package all of those elements together, you get a solid foundation for business growth. And as we noted inside this issue, it’s real-dollar growth on a broad scale, not merely a reflection of the hideous inflationary environment we’ve experienced in the U.S. since the pandemic. You have to tip your hat to the executives who have assembled the teams that can make that happen.

As always, we here at Ingram’s are indebted to many of these companies whose support has allowed us to cast a discerning eye on regional businesses development for half a century.