Word: viyella
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...that of Joe Hyman. Organizing a small rayon-finishing company only six years ago, Manchester-born Joe Hyman steadily enlarged it through acquisitions, eventually merged with illustrious 180-year-old William Hollins & Co. Ltd., and himself emerged as Rollins' chairman and chief executive. Last week Hollins - renamed Viyella International Ltd. to capitalize on the fame of its lamb's-wool-and-cotton Viyella fabric - moved to take over British Van Heusen for $30 million. When negotiations are complete, Joe Hyman will head Britain's largest purely textile operation, with sales of $70 mil lion annually...
Hyman allows his meritocratic "British whiz kids" easy rein, but has unshakable ideas about how far they should gallop. Viyella International leaves research and development on new yarns to such giants as Imperial Chemical or Courtaulds and leaves garment making, when it can, to the tailors. Hyman concentrates on the richly profitable middle ground of spinning and weaving fabrics, particularly Viyella. With this method and with a beady eye on business practices by his "postgraduate students," the professor has turned a $200,000 loss when he moved in into profits of $900,000 last year...
Americanophile. Once British Van Heusen is absorbed, Viyella intends to move more deeply into synthetics. At the same time Hyman, who has made 28 transatlantic trips and is a self-styled "Americanophile," will step up his marketing in the U.S., where 50% of Viyella production already goes. To service such stateside customers as Manhattan Shirt, Hathaway Shirt, Kayser-Roth and Hart Schaffner & Marx, he intends to re-establish an American mill closed down by earlier management a decade ago in what he regards as an ill-advised cost-cutting move. To step up demand for his products, he has begun...