EDUCATIONAL DIRECTORIES UNLIMITED RANKS 64TH ON LIST OF TOP 100 FASTEST GROWING INNER-CITY COMPANIES IN AMERICA
CHESTER, PA, April 25, 2005 -
The ICIC-Inc Magazine Inner City 100 released the 2005 fastest-growing businesses in inner city areas around the country, and Educational Directories Unlimited (EDU), a Chester-based company specializing in online education directories, is ranked 64.
Criteria for the award include having at least 51 percent of operations located in economically distressed urban area and having sales of at least $150,000 in 1999 and at least $1 million in 2003. EDU's revenue has grown by 354% over those five years. The Inner City 100 winners are based in 58 cities, and were selected from a pool of over 7,500 nominations.
"We are so excited to have been chosen as part of the Inner City 100," says Mark Shay, president and CEO of EDU. "This is the third consecutive year we have received this honor, and it gets harder each year as the inner cities continue to improve and see more and more great companies working out of them. We are proud to contribute economic growth and stability to the city of Chester. The city has given us a great location, infrastructure and available workforce."
EDU has been at the forefront of educational marketing since its inception in 1995. With a mission to be the bridge between students and educators, EDU provides online directories such as GradSchools.com and StudyAbroad.com, as well as StudentProspector.com, a service allowing graduate school and study abroad administrators to pro-actively search through a database of student profiles. The company also recently created EDU Internet Strategies, a consulting group focused on helping clients improve their websites, marketing strategies and database solutions.
This is the seventh year the Inner City 100 award was giving out. They present the award in hopes of showing other companies that businesses can thrive in inner cities. This is part of an attempt to draw more companies to the cities, thus helping to build them up. This year's winners have created almost 9,600 new jobs in the past five years. EDU employs 43 people in the city of Chester, 31 more than when they moved to Chester in 1999. John C. Minter, Jr., First Vice President and National Sales Director for Merrill Lynch Business Financial Services, a sponsor of the program, says, "These companies embody the very best of American business."