Word: sigoloffs
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Wickes. It was plainly a job for Ming the Merciless, a.k.a. Sanford Sigoloff, 53. He earned his Flash Gordon nickname the hard way: turning around ailing companies by ruthlessly cutting, cutting, cutting...
Among those he has saved: Republic, the Los Angeles manufacturing and service company and Daylin, the West Coast retail chain, which he led into bankruptcy and then out again. In Wickes, a diversified seller of almost everything from furniture to apparel to gifts, Sigoloff confronted another bona fide disaster, and his largest rescue mission ever. It had little merchandise, not enough employees to sell what there was, hardly any credit and no cash...
...Sigoloff s first move after taking over Wickes in 1982 was to file bankruptcy papers and thus protect the firm's modest assets. To Sigoloff, there seemed to be no other choice: in the 15 previous months, Wickes had lost more than $400 million...
...toughest move was closing Aldens, the fifth-largest U.S. catalogue-showroom operator, and breaking the news to its 2,600 employees, many of whom had worked at Aldens all their lives. Sigoloff had sought a buyer for the business, but none could be found. Fearing reprisals for the shutdown, he hired bodyguards for Aldens executives, who even suspected that their food might be poisoned. Said Sigoloff of the closings: "You're paid to make those calls. You're a professional, and you don't fall in love with businesses...
...Wickes, Sigoloff blossomed into a star of television commercials...