To make the Top 50, providers needed a minimum of $190 million in sales for 2009, down from the prior year’s cutoff of $209 million. "For the first time since 2005, a provider could make the Top 50 with less than $200 million in sales. To those who value a spot on the Top 50, this was some good news that came out of the global recession," said John Tuck, editor and publisher of Manufacturing Market Insider. "The bad news was that sales decreased last year for a large number of Top 50 providers."

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Sales of the Top 50 EMS providers for 2009 totaled an estimated $134.4 billion. For the 49 companies that provided sales for 2009 and 2008, aggregate revenue declined by an estimated 14.9%. Without the contribution of the largest provider, Hon Hai, sales would have fallen by 21.8%.

MMI Top 50 providers were ranked based on 2009 sales in U.S. dollars. In order, the top ten were Hon Hai, Flextronics, Jabil Circuit, Celestica, Sanmina-SCI, New Kinpo Group, Venture, Elcoteq, Benchmark Electronics, and Plexus. A top-ten ranking required $1.59 billion in revenue, down from $2.06 billion in 2008.

A majority of the Top 50, or 32 providers, listed 2009 sales under $500 million. Furthermore, 17 companies were bunched between $220 million and $285 million. In addition to ranking providers by 2009 sales, MMI Top 50 listings include sales growth, previous rank, number of employees, number of plants, facility space, space in low-cost regions, number of SMT lines and customer data. This special section was published in the March 2010 edition of MMI.