A Part of the growth could be credited to the alliance Select Comfort shaped in December with Bed Bath & Beyond stores, among the major home decor chains, according to Alan Rifkin, who was managing director of research principles in Piper Jaffray Inc. (currently U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray) when it underwrote Select Comforts IPO. Six months ago, there were just three Select Comfort retail outlets at Bed Bath & Beyond stores; now you can find 13. Rifkin claims the following 25 will be added every year in 1999 and 2000.

 Apparently The investors have started to see the options. Since the corporation's initial public offering (IPO) in December 1998, the organization's stock has climbed from an offering price of $17 per share to $23 in early March. With annual revenue of $246.3 million, up 33.5% from last year, the company appears like a fantastic bet for investors, Rifkin says.

 "I Believe they are uniquely positioned to continue their growth rate at least 30 35% on the top line and at least 50% compounded per year on the main point during the next two to three decades," Rifkin says. Select Comforts net income for 1998 is $5.2 million.

 Select Comfort, at No. 64, is your top debuting firm in Corporate Reports Public 200 record this season. It far outranks the other companies which are new to the listing or are returning after absences of one year or even more. In actuality, Select Comfort is among the very few authentic IPOs on the listing. Lots of the firms on this years list that have no prior year rank noted were not on previous lists, since they had moved or were spinoffs of different companies.

 At A time when investors seem to be going for high tech and Internet stocks (watch Seattle based Amazon.com Inc.'s January trading price of $199 per share), why would a company that produces air beds be appealing to investors?

 "The Industry is about $ 8 billion," says Rifkin,"rising at about 6 per cent per year with strong ties to the housing environment, which continues to strike a record level month after month after month. Right now they've less than a 4% market share, however, I think that may more than double in the next few decades."

 Futon Mattress industry leaders include Sealy Corp.. Inc., Serta Inc., Simmons Co., and Spring Air Bedding Inc., otherwise Called the"Four S's." Cleveland established Sealy, using a sizable Minnesota presence in its 125 worker plant in St. Paul, leads the market with 18 percent market share. Select Comfort is comparatively small, with approximately 3.5 percent market share, however its vertical integration (the business produces, markets, and marketing its own product) gives it a distinct advantage.

 "They're Able to control the entire process and capture margins on each side of the company," Rifkin says.

 At Select Comfort's Plymouth centre, the futon mattresses are produced to the first floor, and upstairs, telemarketers accept calls motivated from direct mail pieces, which account for around 35% of the firm's sales. Retail outlets and street shows account for the remainder.

 McAthie Says the provider's biggest obstacle is getting the kind of name recognition the Four S's do. But if customers include Select Comfort instead, they generally purchase it, '' he states.

 Two companies Accomplished the tough job of averaging a

Doubling of revenue Each year from 1993 98. List chief Video Update

Is at the ideal stage To head like record young enough to really have a

Low base year earnings Figure, yet mature enough to take advantage of

it. Continuing to Surprise are the growth stars of the'90s,

UnitedHealth Group and Best Buy Co., that have remained on the list

In a stage where Comparisons with an ever larger base year become

Harder.

"Most People do not understand what kind of Chair mattress they sleep on," McAthie states. "When you're in the market for a mattress, we would like to be at least in the choice collection, then after we catch you in there, it's a fairly easy sell. http://futonszone.com/eastman-buys-aireloom-bedding-chittenden-eastman-company/

 "I Would also say our IPO helped our consciousness," he says. Select Comforts direction had formerly considered an IPO from the fall of 1997 but decided against it due to the attack with United Parcel Service, Select Comfort's primary shipping service.

 In Further attempts to gain name recognition, Select Comfort purchases over 200 magazine ads annually. The company also employs celebrity spokespersons, including radio announcers Paul Harvey and Rush Limbaugh; and sports celebrities, for example golfer Tom Lehman and also Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Jake Reed. In actuality, a little creativity on the business's part made Reed an avid spokesperson for the organization.

 "We Learned about [Reed's spine ] operation," says McAthie,"proceeded and phoned him and said,'Gee, we'd love to help you,' and we gave him a mattress. And he'll sit and tell you,'The reason why I return to playing this season is because of Select Comfort.'"

 However, Select Comfort's sell to customers isn't without obstacles. Consumers only buy a new futon mattress every 11 or 12 decades, McAthie states. And the cost is extreme.

 "Clearly They have a very high average ticket," says Rifkin. "It's approximately $1,200 generally "

 However, McAthie claims that Select Comfort futon mattresses are competitively priced (prices vary from $499 for a"classic" twin futon mattress and base to almost $2,000 for the"ultra" king size futon mattress and foundation).

 To Prove to its clients that"sleeping air" is far better than sleeping on additional futon mattresses, Select Comfort commissioned studies in major universities including Stanford, the University of Memphis, along with Duke. Based on McAthie, these studies showed that the Select Comfort futon mattress enhanced spinal alignment through sleep, which those who slept on Select Comfort futon mattresses obtained 24 percent faster eye movement, or REM, sleep (the most peculiar kind) than those who slept on traditional futon mattresses. Moreover, McAthie asserts that his futon mattress alleviates back pain for the majority of sufferers.

 In Reality, McAthie is really enthusiastic about his merchandise that it's difficult for him to talk about his company. McAthie arrived to Select Comfort from October 1995 by Minnetonka based Fingerhut Cos.. Inc., where he was senior vice president and CFO. Rob Hawthorne, president and CEO, was at Minneapolis established The Pillsbury Brands Group for five years prior to joining Select Comfort at 1977.

 "The Direction is certainly very capable of leading their expansion," says Rifkin." [Hawthorne] heads a very competent management team that's, in my estimation, equivalent to the job at hands of rolling these stores out."

 McAthie Says the business is working on several new products, including adjustable beds and bed frames appropriate for your home atmosphere. Other projects include using low frequency noise to treat back pain, also a technology which could possibly be integrated into both beds and seats. Select Comfort can be experimenting with home delivery and setup services. Now, customers must set up themselves after UPS delivers them.

 "We have Always got new things on the drawing board which we're considering, to always enhance our current product as well as present new products," McAthie states.

 He Supposes that is sufficient to provide any investor a good nights sleep.

 Calendar Year 1998 was a time of restructuring and retrenching for Minnesota's publicly traded businesses. Ironically, their preparations for the new century consisted of both gearing up and reducing efforts geared toward creating not merely the bulk to compete for sales in the international market, but also the efficacy to turn massive sales into larger profits.

 These Preparations were completed at the expense of 1998 earnings.

 However, First things: Composite revenue of the 200 largest public companies reached $201.13 billion in 1998. Last year over year growth of just 3.7 per cent, the smallest gain in almost a decade, has been a direct effect of losing four of the year's top 50 companies. These four firms contributed $13.01 billion to the 1997 earnings total of about $193.97 billion.

 Composite Earnings of $7.85 billion were down a whopping 32.7 percent from 1997's $11.66 billion... and only $1.63 billion in this reduction can be traced to people four lost companies. The rest is chiefly attributable to both the listing amounts and the record amounts of special charges. UnitedHealth Group ($900 million), The St. Paul Cos. ($656 million), and 3M Co. ($493 million) marginally united for about $ 2.05 billion in one time pretax prices. No fewer than 18 other high 50 firms took comparable prices, albeit to a lesser degree. 1 time charges also contributed to the painful statistic: Just 135 of those 200 businesses turned into an yearly profit.

 Additional Evidence of retrenchment: A grand total of 980,300 employees finally report to the record's 200 headquarters. That figure represents a decrease of 1.4 percent in the last year.

 MAIN LIST

The Financial info in the main listing has been dried from quarterly reports and SEC documents issued by the firms themselves. Position is by 1998 earnings from ongoing operations, as calculated from the sum of the prior four quarters with no respect to fiscal year end. Earnings figures are following taxes and extraordinary items, but prior to any chosen dividends. 1 time gains or losses which exceed 10% of earnings are footnoted.

 Additionally Included in the main list: prior year ranking, headquarters city, telephone number, stock symbol, and a brief business description.

 INDEX

To Find a specific business, look for its rank in the alphabetical index of companies on pages 48 and 49.

 25 FASTEST GROWING LIST

The "fastest growing" list ranks companies based on their revenue growth within the five year period from fiscal 1993 through fiscal 1998. We calculated annualized growth rates for all companies that reported: (1) that a full year of results from base year 1993; and (2) a revenue increase from 1997 to 1998. A"fastest growing" list, ranking the lowest 10 companies, can be presented.

 TOP 10 LISTS

The Top 10 lists emphasize calendar year company achievements in eight specific categories. Averages for total assets and stockholders' equity had been computed by the organization's quarter ending balance sheets.

 METHODOLOGY

The CRM 200 is a record of the biggest publicly traded firms in Minnesota as measured by annual earnings. To determine this amount, we summed monetary results from the monitoring four quarters

 GREATEST PROFITS:

Excluding nonrecurring Prices, 3M would nevertheless be Minnesota's

Highest earning people Firm at $1.526 billion even though a difficult

 Year internationally, Which helped produce a 100 million earnings

 decline. But Restructuring at 3M allowed U.S. Bancorp and its own record

Earnings to end 3M's stranglehold on No. 1. Absent this year are

Four of the usual Suspects: Norwest (transferred ). The St. Paul Cos..

 (merger fees ), Northwest Airlines (hit ), and UnitedHealth

Group (restructuring).

Return on equity

Inspired by unit quantity Growth of 3 percent domestically and 7 percent

Internationally, General Mills' earnings have met fiscal 1999 expansion

 Objectives through six months. Comparable store sales increases and

Gross margin Improvements resulted in a increase of 172 percent in

Musicland's 1998 Earnings, to a record $38 million. But equally

Important in this Particular category: The balance sheets of these

Two companies feature outsize debt to equity ratios.

 RETURN ON ASSETS (companies with $10 million in assets):

Rimage Corp. earned Only than $5 million in an asset base of $16.3

Million, winning this Year's prize to do the most with the

least. The Business is Positioning itself as the"output for

The internet." Strong growth from the CD Recordable merchandise line,

Along with improved Gross earnings, contributed significantly to

Rimace's record earnings. In an effort to broaden public ownership,

Rimage's board Announced a 50 percent stock dividend in November.