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ECS ranks 55th on Inc.'s '03 Fast 500

October 9, 2003

NEW YORK - Electronic Cash Systems (ECS), a provider of turnkey bank card solutions, ATM services and other value added products, is ranked 55th on Inc. Magazine's 23rd annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.

Founded in 1997 by President and Chief Executive Fadi Cheikha, ECS had sales growth of 2,412 percent, from $289,366 in net sales in 1998 to $7.2 million in 2002. ECS is headquartered in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.

The Inc. 500 list, which ranks privately-held companies according to sales growth over the past five years, will appear in a special issue on newsstands Oct. 14.

The companies that made this list have posted an average five-year sales growth of 1,312  percent and have aggregate revenue of $14.4 billion. While the United States shed 1.5 million jobs in 2002, Inc. 500 companies -- half of which were launched with less than $20,000 -- provided employment for 67,973 people. 

To be eligible for this year's Inc. 500, companies had to be independent and privately held through their fiscal year 2002, have had at least $200,000 in sales in the base year of 1998, and their 2002 sales had to exceed 2001 sales. Inc. verifies all information using tax forms and financial statements from certified public accountants and by conducting interviews with company officials.