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Business Services Industry

Top employers: service drives employment

South Florida CEO, July, 2004 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

South Florida's large employers are almost entirely service industries. From No. 1 Publix Supermarkets (which easily holds onto that spot from last year's annual listing) to No. 200 Eastern Financial Florida Credit Union, it is the service sector that keeps the region's residents employed. For instance, some 76,000 people are employed by retailers, including supermarkets, clothing stores and automobile dealerships on this list. More than 51,000 are employed by health care sector companies on this list. Hospitality-related firms employ around 30,000.

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Companies on the Top Employers list are based around the world, although many of them do make their headquarters in South Florida. To assemble the list, we used full-time equivalent (FTE) employee numbers. FTE numbers take into account the part-time and full-time staff at a company. This puts companies that have mostly full-time employees on even footing with those that employ large numbers of part-time staff.

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Motorola

* The Schaumburg, Ill.-based wireless technology developer employs 3,300 in Broward County, making it No. 29 on the Top Employers list. The company's main site in Plantation and satellite offices in Sunrise and Fort Lauderdale are the home of its iDen Subscriber and CGISS Public Safety handset divisions, and its corporate Latin American headquarters. The iDen division develops and markets the walkie-talkie/cell phone combination sold by Nextel and other wireless providers. CGISS engineers consumer walkie-talkies, as well as twoway communications devices used by public safety agencies. Major customers include the New York City Police Department. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, CGISS will provide the two-way radio communications system used by public safety agencies throughout the games.--Giannina Smith

#29

Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd.

* South Florida's No. 2 cruise company added approximately 500 local employees during 2003. With a total of 2,940 employees, that landed it at No. 35 on the Top Employers list. Miami-based Royal Caribbean lost to Miami-based Carnival Corp. in the race to be the world's largest cruise company. Nonetheless, 2003 revenue of $3.8 billion put Royal Caribbean at No. 7 in the Top Public companies list for the second year in a row. Its Celebrity and Royal Caribbean lines are important homeport tenants at the Port of Miami and Port Everglades. In May, the company opened a new homeport in Bayonne, N.J. Cape Liberty Cruise Port will serve as a seasonal base for two of the company's ships, the Voyager of the Seas and the Empress of the Seas. Royal Caribbean also tried to tackle one of the cruise industry's black marks--its environmental record. This year it implemented the industry's first environmental management system and environmental officer-training program.--GS

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#35

Total South Floridians employed by the companies of the Top Employers List: 418,700

Andrx

* If you ever sought allergy relief you may have reached for a little melt-in-your mouth pill from Andrx Corp. Among the generic pharmaceutical maker's best-selling medications is a generic version of allergy medication Claritin. The "reditabs" dissolve under the tongue--no water required. Unusual delivery systems are a specialty for Andrx, which has a niche in developing generic timed-release medications. Its latest products include generic versions of the popular oral contraceptive Ortho Tri-Cyclen.

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Andrx is one of the largest bioscience employers in South Florida, with 2,100 local employees at manufacturing plants in Davie and Weston, and its headquarters in Davie. That landed it at No. 53 on the Top Employers List.

In 2003 the company posted revenues in excess of $1 billion, landing it at No. 17 on the Top Public Companies list. The bottom line swung from a $92 million net loss in 2002 to a $48 million gain in 2003.--GS

#53

Pollo Operations

* Pollo Operations, owner of fast-food restaurant chain Pollo Tropical, hopes a few menu changes will bring in more customers. Changed offerings include items based on a piquante new pepper that is a mix between a pepper and a cherry tomato. Pollo also hopes a new balsamic chicken salad will bring in low-carb dieters. Pollo Operations, a division of New York-based Carrols Corp., owns 80 Pollo Tropical restaurants in South Florida, nine TropiGrills in Central Florida and has franchisees running stores in Latin America. It takes a lot of people to grill all those chicken breasts--the chain employs 1,790 full-time equivalent employees in the region, landing it at No. 67 on the Top Employers list.--GS

#67

Navarro Discount Pharmacy

* Beauty kings and queens look for product bargains at their local Navarro Discount Pharmacy, which specializes in fragrances and beauty supplies. Navarro also stocks imported Hispanic food brands and other local favorites.

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The company seems to have hit a nerve. Navarro has a 17-percent market share in South Florida--greater than either Walgreens or Eckerd's. Industry publication Drugstore News says the company has the highest sales per store in the nation. The publication also ranked Navarro the No. 27 drug store chain in the US (based on total annual revenues).

Business Services Industry

Top employers: service drives employment

South Florida CEO, July, 2004 by Rochelle Broder-Singer

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