Word: ferkauf
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...Eugene Ferkauf, founder, controlling stockholder and audacious boss of E. J. Korvette Inc. (TIME cover, July 6, 1962), success as the hero of U.S. discount selling is no bargain. It gives him less and less time to do what he really wants to do. He likes to play hooky from the office, go out to mind his stores. Dressed in his $32.50 Korvette suit, he fusses, fixes problems, scolds and cajoles salespeople. He fondles marked-down books and basketballs as if they were emeralds; in the art galleries of his stores, he browses proudly around the Picassos, Chagalls and other...
Since the boy from Brooklyn launched his first Korvette in 1948, his company has moved westward to the Mississippi, expanding to 42 stores and 63 supermarkets from Hartford to St. Louis. All this requires a lot of administration, and Ferkauf is much too restless to sit around and tend to the details of the nation's fastest-growing retail chain. Result: though Korvette's sales since 1962 have more than doubled to $720 million, its profits in this year's first fiscal half (ending in January) have dropped 14%, to $7.9 million, and its stock is down...
Shaky Foundation. In his frustrating search for competent, congenial top administrators, Ferkauf since 1964 has shuffled-or shucked off-one chairman, two presidents and three vice presidents. Last week his personnel merry-go-round was still spinning. Out went Chairman Hilliard J. Coan after only twelve months on the job, and two more vice presidents. Ferkauf is personally charming, but is a hard man to please...
...millionaire is about 60, a remarkable number of the men who create productive wealth-the doers, drivers and achievers-become millionaires before they reach 40, then go on during their 40s to build their businesses even bigger. The most imaginative innovator in discount retailing, Korvette's Eugene Ferkauf, became a millionaire in his early 30s and now, at 44, is worth $55 million. The young owners of National Football League franchises-notably the Philadelphia Eagles' Jerry Wolman, 38, and the Cleveland Browns' Art Modell, 41-have seen the value of their investments rise by more than...
...thoroughly enjoyed your article on Eugene Ferkauf [July 6]. As a small businessman I was very inspired by the potential still left in this country for an enterprising and imaginative person...