TCL Beatrice reduces staff in cost-cutting measure

Jet, April 11, 1994

TLC Beatrice International Holdings based in New York, the nation's largest Black-owned business, recently announced it has reduced staff members at its headquarters and sold the company jet in an effort to cut costs.

The measures are the first public disclosure of TLC Beatrice's management since Loida Lewis,the widow of entrepreneur-founder Reginald Lewis, assumed control of the food conglomerate on Feb. 1.

Officials there said the cuts have pacified minority shareholders, who had been leaning toward selling the privately owned company to the public in a stock offering.

Mrs. Lewis took over the company reigns from her husband's brother, Jean Fugett, who had headed the firm since Lewis died of brain cancer last January.