Word: bonwit
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...thumb of a domineering mother. Like many designers, little Calvin began sewing as a tyke and was impatient with school. After a couple of dead-end apprenticeships, his future dawned with the opening of an elevator door. In 1968 he had a tiny garment-district office when a Bonwit Teller executive on his way to another floor glimpsed some coats. He ordered his assistant out of the elevator to check them out. Soon the young designer was the star of the store's young line...
...investment, the retailing industry has the look of a losing bet. In just the past few months, hard times or bankruptcy has befallen such legendary stores as B. Altman, Bonwit Teller, Bloomingdale's and Abraham & Straus. Yet this prominent list of casualties failed to dampen the bidding war that began last September when B.A.T. Industries of London decided to sell Saks Fifth Avenue, one of the most prestigious U.S. retailing chains. At least four potential buyers vied for the richly profitable company (estimated 1989 earnings: $111 million), which has 45 stores in such locales as Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and Palm...
...companies do not have to file for Chapter 11 to lure the new vultures. "There are many shades of failure," says Sanford Sigoloff, a turnaround specialist who runs the bankrupt U.S. operations of Australia-based Hooker Corp., which owns the B. Altman and Bonwit Teller department-store chains. Such troubled but solvent corporations as Wang Laboratories, the Lowell, Mass., computer maker that laid off more than 1,500 workers last year, have hired "workout" advisers to help pare down their debt. By pursuing a workout instead of bankruptcy, management can maintain control of the company and generally reorganize faster. "There...
...have been through the takeover wars. The new heroes are turnaround specialists like Sanford Sigoloff. Long known as Ming the Merciless for his fierce cost cutting, Sigoloff now runs the bankrupt U.S. operations of Australia-based Hooker Corp., which loaded up on debt to acquire the B. Altman and Bonwit Teller department-store chains...