Word: box
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...remains understandably red-faced over its abortive 1929 attempt to set up shop in Britain. That year the company established a British subsidiary-only to meet with an unexpected fate. Joining forces to fend off the challenger, British container companies merged into what came to be known as Metal Box Co. Ltd. and enlisted the technical assistance of American Can's chief U.S. rival, Continental Can Co. The combination proved so powerful that American Can, badly beaten, sold its local operations to Metal Box in 1931, agreed not to return to Britain for at least 20 years...
...Metal Box has since grown into a $408 million-a-year company with 40 plants in the United Kingdom, 32 more in Africa, Asia, Italy and the West Indies. Still working closely with Continental Can, the company has diversified into container products ranging from cardboard boxes and packaging labels to polyethylene bottles and aerosol valves. But it is on the tin cans used for food, beer and soft drinks that Metal Box truly thrives. Thanks to high-powered marketing, the company accounts for 90% of Britain's food-can sales, has just announced record pretax profits of $38.1 million...
Undaunted by all that, American Can is trying again. Last February the $1.4 billion-a-year U.S. company shelled out $3.3 million to buy 60% control of Liverpool-based Reads Ltd., Metal Box's only real competitor. Holding onto a 40% interest is the hoary textile-making firm of Courtaulds Ltd., which was soundly trounced by Metal Box after acquiring Reads in 1959. Under Courtaulds, Reads has turned profits on such lines as steel drums and paint cans, but lost heavily on food and beverage tins. With the arrival of American Can, the company is embarking on a fiveyear...
Recalling American Can's earlier entry into the British market, David Ducat, 63, who becomes Metal Box's chairman next month, says gingerly that "Some people never learn." But Ducat knows well that the U.S. rival has the resources and know-how to make a sustained effort. Indeed, most Britons are expecting a lively battle, figure that Metal Box may even have to resort to some unaccustomed pricecutting to meet the new competition. "Metal Box's profitable monopoly," says London's Observer, "is bound to take a knock. By how much is another matter...
There is no question where this Body soon will be interred: television. It is ironic that the box that once gave Caesar such life may one day become his movie's coffin...