DALLAS / FORT WORTH 100

BUTTER BEAT OUT guns for the second year in a row in the rankings of the top 100 public companies in Dallas/Fort Worth. LTV Corp., the troubled aerospace/defense/ steel giant, came in second. It acquired Republic Steel last year, boosting its revenues from $4.5 billion to $7 billion. LTV lost $378 million in 1984, compared with $145 million lost the year before.

And, because we are all in more of a hurry than ever, Southland Corp.’s 7-Eleven stores rang up $12.1 billion in sales, ranking first in the Metroplex. Revenues were boosted by the acquisition of Citgo Petroleum’s refinery business, which Southland bought in 1983.

Some old standbys left us last year. Ross Perot sold out Electronic Data Systems (24th last year) to General Motors. W. Foots Clements took Dr Pepper private and William G. Clements gave the nod to sell SEDCO offshore drilling company (26th) to Schlumberger Inc.

The Shooting Star Award goes to a discount long-distance phone service company, U.S. Telephone, which roared from nowhere in 1979 to $131 million in sales in ’83 and 57th place before selling out to a national competitor last year.

But others have filled in the ranks. Dallas’ Aviall bought up private aircraft maintenance and airport service facilities around the country, and became a public company last year with $400 million in sales, ranking 31st. The Hyatt hotel chain financed the resurrection of Braniff Airlines, which ranks 52nd. Centex, the construction giant, spun off its oil and gas ventures to form Cenergy, with $65 million in sales last year and a rank of 78th.

The Gotcha Coming and Going Award goes to the Cuellar family, which founded the El Chico string of Mexican restaurants in the Forties and sold it out to a national conglomerate in 1977, only to buy it back again in ’83 and run up $77 million last year in sales and $3.6 million in profits to rank 72nd.