FORBES NAMES WEST MARINE ONE OF AMERICA’S 100 MOST TRUSTWORTHY COMPANIES

West Marine, the largest specialty retailer of boating supplies and accessories, has once again been named by Forbes magazine as one of “America’s 100 Most Trustworthy Companies.” According to Forbes reporter Jacquelyn Smith,  the most  “transparent and trustworthy businesses that trade on American exchanges” were selected by partnering with GMI Ratings (GMI), a global research firm that examines environmental, social, and accounting risks affecting public companies. 

Over 60 governance and accounting measures were examined and West Marine was featured in the small-cap sector based upon accounting transparency, solid management practices and appropriate Board supervision. West Marine has nearly 300 company-operated stores located in 38 states, Puerto Rico, Canada and five franchised stores located in Turkey. The Direct-to-Consumer division includes a call center, direct mail and westmarine.com, offering customers over 75,000 products, plus the convenience of exchanging catalog and e-commerce purchases at store locations.
 
To qualify for “America’s 100 Most Trustworthy Companies,” corporations had to have market caps of $250 million or more. GMI Ratings examined more than 8,000 publicly traded companies and assigned an accounting and governance risk score (AGR) based on a proprietary model. To be considered for the list, companies must have maintained AGR ratings of “conservative” or “average” for the past four quarters and have a positive forecast for equity returns.
 
GMI Ratings found that “America’s 100 Most Trustworthy Companies” usually outperformed comparable corporations over the long term.

The entire article is available at www.forbes.com