New England's top privately held companies. (directory)

New England's Top Privately Held Companies

It was a very good year. Perhaps 1985 was a vintage year for the private companies of New England. For the 250 private companies volunterring sals or revenue results for our annual tally, an average 13% gain over 1984 results was logged last year. Employment was up. And while the executives of private companies almost universally omit the word "profit" from their public discourse, they seemed to be in brighter moods than in previous years.

One effect of the good tidings is that more companies than eve before were willing to share their sales results. The smallest company on the list this year is United Electric Controls Co. of Watertown, Mass., reporting revenues of $32 million.

There was, of course, some of the usual diffidence among private company executives. To compile the list, we called or wrote to more than 400 companies. Our estimate is that only about 50 or 60 companies likely to have had annual revenues of more than $32 million declined to provide figures.

Of those that did volunteer the information, average sales were $152.3 million, and …