Northwest Industries

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Northwest Industries (1985–1987 Farley / Nortwest Industries , 1987–2002 Fruit of the Loom Inc. ) was an American conglomerate . It was founded in 1968 as the holding company of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad railway company .

history

In 1956, Ben W. Heineman became Chairman of the Board of the Chicago and North Western Railway . As a result, he tried to increase the profitability of the railway company and bring it back into the black. He managed to turn an annual loss of around $ 5 million in 1966 into a profit of $ 26 million. However, since he could not expand the railway company through further mergers, he began to look for investment opportunities in other areas of the economy. Two chemical companies (Velsicol Chemical, Michigan Chemical) were acquired in the mid-1960s. Following the general trend in the railway sector, Northwest Industries was created in 1967, which from April 1968 acted as the railway company's holding company. This opened up the possibility of investing in other sectors of the economy without being affected by the antitrust restrictions for railway companies. A first step was the merger of Northwest Industries with the Philadelphia and Reading Corporation conglomerate . This brought the brands and companies Union Unterwear (with Fruit of the Loom ), Acme Boots, Universal Manufacturing and Lone Star Steel into the company's possession.

In 1969 the attempt to take over BF Goodrich failed . In 1971 the beverage importing company Buckingham Corporation was acquired for $ 120 million.

After it became clear that the profit from the railway sector was not guaranteed in the long term and the railway company began to slip back into the red, Heineman tried to sell C&NW. However, he did not find a buyer. Eventually, on June 1, 1972, the company was sold for approximately $ 734 million to the newly formed, railroad-owned Chicago and North Western Transportation Company.

In April 1973 the battery manufacturer General Battery Corporation was bought and in February 1976 83% of the shares in the metal company Microdot Inc. were acquired. Later the company was completely taken over. Furthermore, the underwear brand BVD was bought and in November 1977 Northwest Industries took over 97.4% of the beverage bottler Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Los Angeles for 202 million dollars. On the other hand, the takeover attempts by Swift & Company and Home Insurance failed .

In 1982 Coca-Cola Bottling and Buckingham Corporation were sold to Beatrice Foods . In 1983, Microdot was sold for $ 121 million.

From the beginning of the 1980s, Heineman was looking for a successor or a company that Northwest Industries could take over. A first attempt by the former Esmark managers Donald Kelly and Roger Briggs to acquire the company for 1.4 billion dollars failed due to financing from the banks.

In July 1985, it was finally taken over by Farley Industries for $ 1.4 billion. Farley Industries was founded in 1976 by William F. Farley to acquire a pectin manufacturer. As a result, Farley acquired other manufacturing, mining and apparel companies. Financing was usually done through leveraged buyouts . As part of the acquisition, Lone Star Steel was separated from the group and became independent. Farley was primarily interested in Union Underwear, which generated 84% of Northwest's revenues.

The new company was initially named Farley Northwest Industries and was renamed Fruit of the Loom Inc. (after the main brand) on April 21, 1987. In the same year the company was floated on the stock exchange.

In February 1986 Universal Manufacturing was sold to MagneTek. As a result, all manufacturing companies were sold (Velsicol Chemical to Sandoz ; General Battery to Exide ) that did not come from the clothing industry. The real estate companies were also retained. At the same time, the clothing area was expanded through further acquisitions. However, the acquisitions increased the company's debt.

In the late 1990s, sales fell and the company tried to counter this by closing factories and relocating production abroad. In addition, there was an extremely high credit burden on the company.

In March 1999, as part of a reorganization, the company became a subsidiary of the holding company based on the Cayman Islands . In December of the same year, however, the company filed for bankruptcy. 2002 took over Warren Buffett 's Berkshire Hathaway company assets (including the brand Fruit of the Loom) for 835 million US dollars.

Company headquarters

1985–1999: Sears Tower , Chicago

Corporate management

President and Chief Executive Officer

  • 1985–1992: William F. Farley (and Chief Executive Officer until 1999)
  • 1992-1996: John B. Holland
  • 1996-1999: William F. Farley
  • 1999–2002: Dennis S. Bookshester (CEO only)

Chairman of the Board

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Farley Eyeing Northwest Industries . In: tribunedigital-chicagotribune . ( chicagotribune.com [accessed June 6, 2018]).
  2. ↑ David Greising. "Farley ready to sell Universal Mfg." Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times News Group. 1986. Retrieved June 06, 2018 from HighBeam Research: Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 19, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  3. ↑ FRANCINE KNOWLES. "Fruit of Loom sinks on fears of bankruptcy." Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times News Group. 1999. Retrieved June 06, 2018 from HighBeam Research: Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com