Word: genesco
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...high fashion goes shopping for footwear, she might choose between three of New York's fanciest shoe salons-I. Miller, Henri Bendel, and the Delman Salon at Bergdorf Goodman. What she probably does not know is that all three are operated by the same manufacturing and retailing giant-Genesco, Inc., of Nashville, Tenn...
Starting out as just one of the South's many shoemakers, Genesco has grown pell-mell since 1938 by buying up 46 companies. Today it operates 80 factories in 17 states, manufactures 51 brands of shoes from Flagg Bros, to Mannequin, makes Griffon men's clothes and Formfit girdles, and sells its wares through 1,500 Genesco-owned retail stores, including the Bonwit Teller chain. From its sprawling empire, Genesco last year drew profits of $8,900,000 on sales of $443 million...
...Purpose. Genesco was stitched together by Chairman Walton Maxey Jarman, 58, an introspective Baptist deacon whose favorite pastime is rereading the works of Thomas Mann. Impatient with the faults of others, Jarman also harbors a nagging concern that he may not understand himself, once took a battery of company psychological tests under an assumed name. The psychologists' verdict: Jarman was too shy and self-conscious ever to deal successfully with people, and would be a failure in management...
Basic to Jarman's plan was integration of the new companies to provide the economies of size and to put him in closer touch with changing consumer tastes. Today Genesco relies heavily on its retail outlets to alert its manufacturing divisions to new buying trends. The company's divisions also keep in close touch, and a successful new shoe design by the high-priced Johnston & Murphy line can be quickly copied by Genesco's lower-priced lines. Nonetheless. Jarman insists that each division retain its own distinctive personality, and that division managers have wide autonomy. Says...
...Still Poised. Despite its rapid growth, Genesco is a long way from Maxey Jarman's goal. It still does not make women's or children's coats, suits and dresses. Moreover, though total profits have increased 69% since 1955, per-share earnings have tailed off from $2.31 to $2.14-partly because Genesco issued new stock to acquire many of its subsidiaries. Genesco is currently lumping three of its retail men's-apparel chains into one overhead-cutting group, and Jarman predicts that per-share earnings will be up 50% to 75% within seven years. He insists...