Word: egbert
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Biggest headache of all has been the Avanti, the hot, handsome sports car that is the pet project of Studebaker's dynamic President Sherwood Egbert, 42. Though initial orders suggest that Studebaker could well sell 15,000 1963 Avantis, production has been held to fewer than 500 a month by the difficulties of getting the various parts of the car's fiber-glass body to fit snugly together. Egbert hopes soon to open an Avanti body assembly line in South Bend so as not to have to rely solely on an outside supplier to both make and assemble...
Supported by Diversity. Two years ago, all this would have been immediately disastrous for Studebaker. But in the past 18 months, Egbert has acquired for Studebaker five profitable new subsidiaries, ranging from a home-appliance maker to a nonscheduled airline. With 47% of its sales now outside the auto business, Egbert is counting on the new divisions to keep the company solvent until he can turn the automaking division around...
Studebaker launched its drive to diversify in 1959, but corporate attention was diverted from the task by the encouraging success of the early Larks. Egbert put the program back in gear in 1961 and in the last 20 months has added five companies to a stable of subsidiaries that now includes manufacturers of refrigerators, freezers, electric generators, oil additives and superchargers. Today auto sales account for 60% of Studebaker's gross, v. 79% only seven months...
With huge tax losses to carry forward, Studebaker went looking for profits against which to apply them. Says Egbert: "Every one of the companies we have bought was operating in the black." In many cases, Studebaker has been able to slice overhead by combining operations with its new subsidiaries. The parent company's styling department, for example, now serves all divisions. And so far, the diversification program has paid off handsomely: where it managed to avert a loss of $3,100,000 in 1961 only by selling off its plastics division, Studebaker showed a profit...
...auto sales up 46% from a year ago, Studebaker has no intention of getting out of the car-making business. But if overwhelming competition from Detroit giants ever does force the South Bend assembly lines to halt, Studebaker means to be ready. And that means more diversification. Egbert is not ready to say what's next. But, he assures coyly, "we're not sitting on our hands...