Word: retailing
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Whether or not Britain gets into the Common Market, Continental retailers are glumly resigned to sharp competition from the biggest of British shopkeepers: restless Sir Isaac Wolfson, 65. To his collection of 2,600 retail stores in Britain, Canada and South Africa, Sir Isaac has lately added the biggest mail-order house in The Netherlands. Wehkamp Fabriekskantoor. And though he paid $760,000 for it, Sir Isaac clearly regards Wehkamp as only a stepping stone; already he is laying plans to expand the company's business into Belgium and West Germany...
...Today, says Glasgow-born Sir Isaac in his Scottish burr, "we are on the way to becoming the Sears of Britain.'' Openly copying Sears's methods, Great Universal manufactures much of its own furniture, clothing and appliances, sells its merchandise both through the mails and at retail outlets, and counts one British family in every four among its customers. Gussie's shares, now worth 450 times what they were when Sir Isaac joined the company, are among the bluest chips on the London Stock Exchange. Last year, the company had pretax earnings of $77 million...
...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...
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...
...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 that he plans to hold down on new acquisitions for a while, but in the next breath admits that he would like...