(Gartner: Stamford, CT) -- Gartner Inc. has released the findings from its eighth annual Supply Chain Top 25. The goal of the initiative is to raise awareness of the supply-chain discipline and how it affects the business.

Analysts announced the findings from this year’s research at the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference, which was held recently in Stamford, Connecticut.

“Last year, we noted that companies were starting to invest in resources and assets again, reflecting a newly recovering economy,” says Debra Hofman, managing vice president at Gartner. “This year, that trend continues even more strongly, with many companies investing for growth. The global economic recovery has been uneven and halting in some cases, but, on balance, the result has been expansionary for companies’ bottom lines and outlooks.”

Average annual revenue growth of the companies in the study increased 29 percent over the previous year. The average return on assets (ROA) and net profits improved by more than 50 percent in 2010, and then stabilized this year, signaling profitable growth.

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