LIVONIA, Mich., July 13 -- Valassis, the leading company in marketing services and Connective Media(TM), announced today that it was named to IndustryWeek's "50 Best Manufacturing Companies" list for the second consecutive year. Valassis was distinguished as one of 50 out of a pool of 500 of the largest publicly held manufacturing companies in the United States for outstanding manufacturing and financial performance. "Valassis continues to strive to bring innovation and efficiency to our manufacturing operations," said William F. Hogg, Jr., Executive Vice President of Manufacturing and Operations for Valassis. "By investing in the latest technologies, we have been able to reduce operating costs and increase our performance while continuing to produce high quality products for our clients. As our business evolves, it is the dedication of our employees that keeps our operations continually improving." When determining the "50 Best Manufacturing Companies," IndustryWeek considered financial measures over the past three years that demonstrated both operational efficiency and market success. Companies were selected by evaluating revenue growth, return on equity (ROE), profit margin, asset turnover, inventory turnover and return on assets (ROA). Since Valassis went public in 1992, annual revenue has steadily grown, exceeding $1 billion in 2004. "When IndustryWeek created this list, we set out to highlight the manufacturing companies that were the best performers across both general financial metrics and more manufacturing-specific metrics," says Pat Panchak, editor-in-chief of IndustryWeek. "We wanted to avoid naming one-time performers, so we weighted the revenue growth and profit margins over three years, with the latest year's results weighted more heavily."