In business as in life, few things seemed certain after March 2020.And yet, the highest-growth firms among Memphis’ largest private companies still reached employment and revenue milestones in 2021. Companies designated as Fastest Growing come from MBJ’s annual Top 100 Memphis-Area Private Companies list, which is ranked by gross revenue for the most recently completed year. The 50 Fastest Growing Companies were ranked by their revenue growth from 2019 to 2021.

This year’s Fastest Growing Companies weathered pandemic-era headwinds and came out on top with substantial growth. Read more about one of the Fastest Growing firms and check out the list of the Fastest Growing Companies below.

No. 4
Alston Construction Co.

+115.9% Revenue growth, 2019-21

Alston Construction’s Memphis-area office had a banner year in 2021.
The work performed by its local office ranked it No. 2 out of the metro’s largest general contractors. Driving revenue of $243 million in 2021: Alston served as contractor on some new facilities by behemoth brands. The first, a 1 million-square-foot warehouse in Marshall County, ended up being reconfigured and sized up for Amazon.

That extra-large fulfillment center handles big items — like mattresses, bicycles, and generators — going to consumers. The second big build for Alston involved another West Coast giant, Google. Southaven was chosen for Google’s “Project June,” a 60,000-square-foot flagship operations center.

Alston broke ground on it in August 2020 (the same time as the Amazon facility) while navigating pandemic obstacles facing the construction industry. Both projects were finalists for MBJ’s 2022 Building Memphis awards. And Alston’s local office was an MBJ2022 Best Places to Work honoree.

Gross revenue
2019: $112.5M
2020: $134.3M
2021: $243M

Local employment
2019: 18
2020: 25
2021: 30

Total employment
2019: 375
2020: 400
2021: 475

Source: Memphis Business Journal