THE TIMES 100 : The Best Performing Companies in California : THE REGIONS : For San Diego Companies, Rankings Reflect Turmoil

The Times 100 list of California’s most profitable companies includes two newcomers from San Diego County this year, as well as three disappearances in a reshuffling that once again illustrates the turmoil that has characterized corporate leadership here over the past decade.

The new San Diego names on the list, which ranks the state’s top companies according to two-year average return on equity, are National Health Laboratories (No. 6), a La Jolla-based chain of clinical laboratories, and San Diego Gas & Electric (No. 80), the utility.

National Health Labs was a unit of Revlon when the latter was acquired by financier Ronald O. Perelman in 1985. Since 1988, Perelman has sold 60% of National’s stock to the public in various increments. The fast-growing, enormously profitable company is a network of 16 laboratories, 341 collection stations and courier services in 42 states that guarantees 24-hour turnaround on human fluid and tissue tests for hospitals and doctors.

SDG&E;’s controversial plan to merge with SCEcorp, the parent of Southern California Edison, was unanimously rejected in May, 1991, by the state Public Utilities Commission, ending a bitter 2 1/2-year fight waged by local opponents. Virtually the entire cost of the failed proposal was borne by SCE.

Those companies join two Times 100 mainstays from San Diego, WD-40 and Price Co., as well as Magma Power, a geothermal energy producer that made the list last year. A one-product company, WD-40 sells the popular all-purpose lubricant in the blue and yellow container and remained on the list despite a rare dip in sales and profits in fiscal 1991. In fact, WD-40 moved up from fourth to third place.

WD-40, which over the past three years has returned 91% of its profit back in shareholder dividends, continues to resist gloomy prognostications from some corners that its single product leaves it vulnerable to imitators.

Price Co., operator of 78 Price Club membership warehouse outlets, again made the list, climbing to 42nd place from 44th as it maintained its leadership position in a rapidly growing and increasingly competitive discount market. There were signs in early 1992 that Price’s profits were under pressure as it reported a first-ever decline in quarterly net income, an announcement that caused a broad sell-off in Price Co. stock.

Rounding out the five-company San Diego contingent on The Times 100 was Magma Power, a geothermal energy producer that owns a 50% interest in four Imperial Valley geothermal plants as well as leasehold rights to geothermal energy fields.

San Diego County Revenue Leaders

Companies ranked by overall revenue.

1991 Revenue % Change Rank Company ($ Millions) From 1990 1 Price Co. * 7,056.2 22 2 San Diego Gas & Electric 1,789.0 1 3 HomeFed Corp. 1,528.0 -19 4 Rohr Inc. * 1,395.0 13 5 National Health Laboratories 603.9 20 6 Intermark Inc. * 344.6 -14 7 Cubic Corp. * 317.1 -8 8 PS Group Inc. 277.6 -6 9 Advanced Marketing Services * 203.3 13 10 Chart House Enterprises Inc. 161.9 5 11 Titan Corp. 146.5 18 12 Beeba’s Creations Inc. * 115.9 -25 13 WD-40 Co. * 92.9 2 14 Medical Imaging Centers 88.1 13 15 Brooktree Corp. * 86.0 3

* See exceptions, Page 54.

Source: MZ Group. Certain historical data is from Standard & Poor’s Compustat Inc.

San Diego County Profit Leaders

Companies ranked by profit from continuing operations.

1991 Change Income in Income Rank Company ($ millions) ($ millions) 1 San Diego Gas & Electric 208.1 .2 2 Price Co. * 137.4 9.3 3 National Health Laboratories 103.9 21.3 4 Rohr Inc. * 37.6 15.9 5 Magma Power Co. 33.9 3.8 6 WD-40 Co. * 16.5 2.1 7 Cubic Corp. 11.1 (11.1) 8 Brooktree Corp. 10.6 1.1 9 Pulse Engineering Inc. 7.7 (0.2) 10 Beeba’s Creations Inc. 5.0 9.0 11 DH Technology Inc. 4.5 (1.4) 12 Chart House Enterprises Inc. 4.4 (2.1) 13 GTI Corp. 4.3 1.9 14 Titan Corp. 3.4 1.1 15 Psicor Inc. 3.3 1.2

* See exceptions, Page 54.

Source: MZ Group.

San Diego County Revenue Growth Leaders

Companies ranked by one-year average annual sales growth rate.

1-Year Avg. 1991 Annual Sales Revenue Rank Company Growth % ($ Millions) 1 GTI Corp. 43.6 77.9 2 Price Co. * 22.4 7,056.2 3 National Health Laboratories 20.3 603.9 4 Advanced Marketing Services * 12.9 203.3 5 Rohr Inc. * 12.7 1,395.0 6 Medical Imaging Centers 12.5 88.1 7 Cohu Inc. * 10.6 48.6 8 Magma Power Co. 9.4 84.1 9 Chart House Enterprises Inc. 5.1 161.9 10 Psicor Inc. 4.6 67.8 11 DH Technology Inc. * 4.2 42.9 12 Brooktree Corp. * 3.1 86.0 13 WD-40 Co. * 2.4 92.9 14 San Diego Gas & Electric 1.0 1,789.0 15 PS Group Inc. -5.6 277.6

1991 Profit/(Loss) Rank ($ Millions) 1 4.278 2 137.379 3 103.900 4 .658 5 37.598 6 (10.449) 7 2.658 8 33.941 9 4.421 10 3.290 11 4.526 12 10.616 13 16.542 14 208.060 15 (23.941)

*See exceptions, Page 54.

Source: MZ Group. Certain historical data is from Standard & Poor’s Compustat Inc.

San Diego County Market Value Leaders

Companies ranked by stock market valuation.

4/10/92 Market Value Book Value Market as Rank Company ($ millions) ($ millions) % of Book 1 San Diego Gas & Electric 2,398.4 1,497.2 160 2 National Health Laboratories 2,300.7 330.8 695 3 Price Co. * 1,674.6 818.9 204 4 Magma Power Co. 475.6 226.7 210 5 WD-40 Co. * 325.0 39.1 832 6 Molecular Biosystems Inc. * 324.8 77.4 419 7 Rohr Inc. * 267.0 462.5 58 8 Brooktree Corp. * 259.1 74.6 347 9 Mail Boxes Etc. * 215.2 26.2 821 10 PS Group Inc. 120.2 190.7 63 11 Cubic Corp. * 119.2 151.6 79 12 Burnham Pacific Property * 98.4 71.0 139 13 Infrasonics Inc. * 96.2 20.4 472 14 Quidel Corp. * 87.3 8.9 978 15 GTI Corp. 84.5 39.6 214

*See exceptions, Page 54.

Source: MZ Group.

San Diego County Stock Leaders

Companies ranked by percent gain in stock price.

% Change 4/10/92 4/12/91 Stock Stock Stock Rank Company Price Price Price 1 GTI Corp. 157.1 11.25 4.38 2 Advanced Marketing Services 155.6 5.75 2.25 3 WD-40 Co. 53.6 43.00 28.00 4 Beeba’s Creations Inc. 47.4 10.50 7.13 5 National Health Laboratories 39.3 24.38 17.50 6 Chart House Enterprises Inc. 16.2 9.88 8.50 7 San Diego Gas & Electric -4.2 42.50 44.38 8 Maxwell Laboratories Inc. -5.5 13.00 13.75 9 Psicor Inc. -11.3 11.75 13.25 10 Cubic Corp. -19.8 18.75 23.38 11 Rohr Inc. -23.9 15.13 19.88 12 Magma Power Co. -34.1 20.75 31.50 13 Price Co. -35.7 34.25 53.25 14 Medical Imaging Center -64.3 4.81 13.50 15 PS Group Inc. -65.3 22.00 63.38

Source: MZ Group.