Women-owned businesses prosper in 1995.

Southland women business owners were in the money last year. Total revenues at the 100 largest women-owned businesses on this week's List (see pages 22, 24, 26, 28) leaped 17 percent last year.

Those 100 companies reported a total of $1.52 billion in revenues last year, compared with $1.3 million a year earlier, according to The List.

All but 11 companies reported higher revenues. Ironically, one of those whose revenue declined earned the No. 1 ranking, James R. Gary & Co. Ltd. Revenues at James R. Gary, a Woodland Hills-based residential real estate brokerage, fell 12 percent, from $192.3 million in 1994 to $169 million in 1995, according to The List.

Business at the brokerage suffered last year because home prices were falling in the areas of the San Fernando Valley the brokerage serves, said company Chairman and President Linda Gary. (The brokerage was named after Gary's husband, who founded it but died in 1992.)

She cited problems, such as foreclosures, related to the Northridge earthquake that devastated the valley in January 1994, Gary said. The overall lackluster economy in Southern California can also be blamed, she said.

Things are looking up, though. During each of the most recent two months, December 1995 and January 1996, revenues surged 20 percent compared with those same two months a year before, Gary said.

"We're finally getting away from the earthquake-related problems, and there was a "slight improvement in the economy," she said.

In contrast, revenues of No. 3-ranked Kent & Spiegel Direct jumped by $100 million, from $39 million during 1994 to $139 million last year.

The Culver City-based company, which sells products directly to consumers through infomercials, print ads and other means, attributes most of that leap to sales of its hit product - Abflex.

Abflex is an abdominal exerciser designed to flatten and strengthen what many people try to hide, the stomach. "It fulfills a great need out there," said company spokeswoman Laura Fox.

Kent & Spiegel has sold more than $100 million worth of them since they were introduced in February 1995, Fox said.

Abflex was launched by a dramatic infomercial that featured the product's inventor, who has "a washboard stomach," Fox said. It also featured actress Jennilee Harrison, who acted on the shows "Dallas" and "Three's Company."

New on the block

This week's List includes a total of 20 newcomers. Artesia-based Pacific Pioneer Corp. ranked the highest of those, at No. 15.

President and CEO Lin Lan founded this business in 1980 by selling insurance door-to-door, she said. "Every penny the company made went back into the business," she said.

Now Pacific Pioneer is a holding company for six insurance company subsidiaries. Four are in California, one in Arizona and one in Nevada, she said.

The parent company reported revenues of $21.6 million during 1995, a very respectable 29 percent increase over $16.7 million in 1994, according to The List.

Three of the subsidiaries - in San Diego, Sacramento and Scottsdale, Ariz. - were just established in late 1994. Revenues shot up the following year because of the new business they generated, Lan said.

Overall, Pacific Pioneer and its subsidiaries have succeeded because they have found a niche selling commercial insurance to small businesses, Lan said. Their customers include restaurants, motels, shopping centers and private schools.