Do you want the good news or the bad news?
For employees, investors, and Fortune 500 buffs, the good news is that 39 companies gained spots on the list that has become the gold standard of American business. We’ll leave it to you to fill in the bad news. And though there were the pandemic storylines that ravaged (or boosted) entire industries, there were also the outliers that managed to secure a spot despite what was happening in their industries.
It’s no surprise that 2020 was extremely hard on the travel industry, and a number of departures from the list are largely because of a precipitous drop in travel. The exits included Hilton Worldwide Holdings, which saw its revenue per room drop almost 57%, as well as Caesars Holdings, the Las Vegas Sands, MGM Resorts, and Wynn Resorts, which faced both empty rooms and low traffic on the casino floors. Hertz declared bankruptcy, while the travel restrictions pushed Expedia Group’s gross bookings down by 66%. Airlines were among some of the top money losers of the year. And while many, like United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and American Airlines, managed to stay on the 500, Alaska Air, which had to lay off 30% of its workers, and JetBlue Airways, with a 63% revenue drop, did not. One trickle-down effect was aircraft cancellations, spiriting manufacturer Spirit AeroSystems off the list.
On the flip side, the summer of 2020 was the summer of alternative travel, which is how Camping World Holdings (No. 496), seller of RVs and camping supplies, made its debut on the 500 and saw a 76.7% increase in its stock price during 2020.
The pandemic was also brutal on energy, as oil and gas demand fell and the price for crude oil dropped by 20%. Enlink Midstream, Devon Energy, and Hess all were pushed out of the top 500, as was Chesapeake Energy, which also declared bankruptcy, and APA Corporation, which had the added impact on its revenue by starting off the year with the announcement of a very expensive failure in one of its fields. Though managing to keep their spots on the list, names like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Valero Energy, and Marathon Petroleum made the energy industry among the most represented of the money losers.
But the pandemic was a boon for certain types of consumer and retail companies. The grocery boom returned packaged food’s McCormick (No. 482) to the 500 and vaulted Sprouts Farmers Market (No. 437) onto the list and, along with a well-timed e-commerce expansion, made 2020 its best year yet. Few would make the case that it was a good year for restaurants, but for two noteworthy outliers: Chipotle Mexican Grill (No. 464) made its debut on the 500 (gaining a 60% increase in stock price by year-end), and Yum Brands (No. 478), which owns fast-food chains KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, returned.
Uncertainty, a millstone for so many industries and the financial markets, meant the return of A-Mark Precious Metals (No. 495) to the list, as demand for gold and silver increased. Staying in meant higher demand for online gaming, boosting Electronic Arts (No. 485) back onto the 500, while also shifting a much higher number of transactions from brick-and-mortar to online, from the small (No. 403 Chewy, pet products) to the large (No. 483 Carvana, cars). And Square (No. 323) was there to facilitate all the no-touch digital payments, which doubled its revenues.
Traditional retail, like department stores and other mall denizens, fared less well. Macy’s, despite losing almost $4 billion, stayed on the list, while Dillard’s, JCPenney, and Mahwah Bergen Retail Group fell out of the 500, the latter two declaring bankruptcy. Prior to its restructuring, Mahwah, formerly known as Ascena Retail Group and with holdings including Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant, had started the year with the closure of its DressBarn locations, many of which sat in malls owned by Simon Property Group. This, in turn, did not help the already squeezed retail-focused REIT, which also left our list. Another domino effect of the retail downturn also meant the exit of Alliance Data Systems, which provides private label credit cards for brands including J. Crew, Victoria’s Secret, and Williams-Sonoma, thanks to a nearly 31% revenue drop in 2020. Tapestry, which owns luxury brands Coach and Kate Spade, bounced from the list with a hit to revenue of more than $1 billion. Levi Strauss lost almost 23% in revenue and slid out of the 500 too, while PVH, another apparel manufacturer with abysmal losses, managed to stay on the list because of its size with brands including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger.
Some companies shifted on and off the top 500 list because of notable developments or structural changes in the business. Alexion Pharmaceuticals made its debut by notching a 22% gain in revenue; known for its drug Soliris, which treats a number of rare disorders, Alexion will just as soon make its exit, after announcing its sale to AstraZeneca for $39 billion in December.
The merger between Raytheon and United Technologies created a shuffling of pieces on the Fortune 500. The combined aerospace and defense conglomerate, Raytheon Technologies, made it both a top 100 company and a top money loser. Prior to the Q2 completion, United Technologies spun off Carrier Global and Otis Worldwide, boosting the HVAC and elevator and escalator companies onto the list. Lightweight-metals manufacturer Arconic Inc. completed its split in April, retaining its engineered metal manufacturing and renaming as Howmet Aerospace, which just missed the top 500 list. Meanwhile, its former rolled aluminum manufacturing arm, the newly created Arconic (No. 476), made it onto the 500.
Meanwhile in the auto industry, production shutdowns and a nearly $2 billion drop in sales took American Axle & Manufacturing off the Fortune 500 entirely. Similarly, Rush Enterprises, a vast network of commercial truck dealerships, dropped off as it recorded 2020 revenues more than $1 billion down.
With supply-chain issues, shutdowns, and cancelled and postponed projects, construction was hard hit in 2020. However, a few companies managed to be the outliers in their industry: Boise Cascade (No. 493), a producer of wood and lumber, returned to the top 500 with an almost 18% increase in revenue, as did MDU Resources (No. 486), which does large-scale construction and distribution for utilities, government, and industrial clients. Meanwhile, residential home builder Taylor Morrison Home (No. 452) made its debut on the list, thanks to an increase in revenue of almost 30%.
2020 was not particularly kind to large broadcasting companies. Top 500 companies like Liberty Media and News Corp. also notched positions in the top 50 list of companies to lose the most money. Conservative Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates the second-highest number of TV stations in the country, was also in our top 50 money losers, but still debuted on the list at No. 465.
Finally, video game retailer GameStop dropped out of the top 500 owing to a more than 21% decline in revenue that came first from the closure of many of its retail locations at the start of the pandemic; the company then drew criticism as it tried to pivot, self-labeling as an essential business. The story might have ended there, but in late August, Chewy founder Ryan Cohen revealed he had a significant stake in GameStop, and slowly the stock began to creep upward, jumping to a 480% increase when news hit that he joined the board in January of this year, setting the stage for one of the craziest financial stories of 2021.
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