FLINT, Mich. — For the last several years, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy has been widely recognized as one of the top privately owned companies in the country, but now it's aiming even higher.

President and co-founder Phil Hagerman told the Flint, Mich., Journal that Diplomat is hoping to earn $1 billion in revenues next year. The company is expected to have more than $800 million in revenues this year.

Inc. magazine included Diplomat on its annual list of the fastest-growing private companies for three years in a row, ranking the company at 1,201-out-of-5,000 this year. In July, when Diplomat received Trade and Industry Development Magazine's CiCi Award, Hagerman said the company plans to hire 1,000 people over the next five years and 4,000 people by 2028 in such jobs as nursing, pharmacy, information technology and call-center operations. Many of those jobs will be at its new headquarters, at Flint's Great Lakes Technology Centre.