Business World

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Dec 9, 1997

Last month, for the first time since the end of World War II, families bought more trucks -- including sport utility vehicles, minivans and pickups -- than cars, industry experts said. Demand is rising from women, like Marcie Brogan of Detroit, who view the big vehicles as safer. Of course, the big vehicles guzzle gas and pollute more than cars do.

Thanks largely to purchases of light trucks, automakers enjoyed a 3.8 percent sales gain in November. Convinced that the high-profit trend will continue, they are racing to build light-truck factories and to convert car plants to truck production. More Laboratory Specialists OKLAHOMA CITY (JR) -- Laboratory Specialists of America has completed the purchase of the drugs of abuse testing operations of Arkansas-based Accu-Path Medical Laboratory. The purchase was for an undisclosed combination of cash and notes. The acquisition is expected to generate annual revenues of about $500,000. "This acquisition is important in that it continues to validate our strategy of acquiring and consolidating drugs of abuse testing revenue into our existing state-of-the-art facility," said Larry Howell, president of Oklahoma City-based Laboratory Specialists. The firm owns and operates a nationally certified laboratory that provides employee testing for drugs of abuse to corporate and institutional clients. True golden arches SAN PAULO, Brazil (Cox) -- Under the Golden Arches of McDonald's on the posh Avenida Paulista, customers can choose from McCapuccinos, McFritas and, of course, the classic Big Macs, but they can't buy Egg McMuffins. That's because McDonald's Corp. has been reluctant to introduce the breakfast sandwiches, when the Brazilian custom of eating breakfast at home is so thoroughly ingrained on the population of about 160 million. For the popular fast-food chain, making concessions to local tastes is nothing new. Over the years, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based company has learned to cater to a variety of palates in more than 100 countries around the world. But there's a lot at stake in Latin America, where the company plans to invest more than $1 billion in the next three years to double its number of restaurants, and hopefully boost sales to offset a stagnant U.S. business. "We will invest as much -- and build as many restaurants -- over the next three years as we did in the first 30," said Ed Sanchez, senior vice president for McDonald's International. Sales for the more than 1,000 restaurants and 27 countries in the region could hit $1.5 billion by the end of the year. Last year, Latin America contributed approximately $1.27 billion in sales to the company's total sales of $31.8 billion. But succeeding south of the border means adapting to local customs, as well as riding out upheavals in local economies. In Brazil, for example, the company has weathered at least eight monetary-stabilization plans, five currencies and 54 changes in price controls during its 17 years of operation here. Still, McDonald's plans to invest more than $500 million over the next four years to expand operations in Brazil, where annual sales are expected to reach at least $800 million this year. Let's go to the videotape NEW YORK (NYT) -- Court administrators, seeking to speed up tedious trials, are installing computers and visual aids to make it easier for jurors to see and understand evidence. The state supreme court in Manhattan installed "Courtroom 2000," with laptops, flat- screen monitors and special video-imaging equipment similar to that used in the Oklahoma bombing and O.J. Simpson criminal trials. Officials hope to cut trial times in half. Lawyers will be able to highlight evidence as sports announcers would a football play, but video games for bored jurors are presumably not part of the package. Tightening the Apple NEW YORK (NYT) -- The search for a hotel room in Manhattan is going to get a shade harder next year, when two hotels -- with a combined 470 rooms -- will close for renovations. The first to be shut, on Dec. 22, is the 228-room Westbury, at 69th Street and Madison Avenue, which will be taken out of commission for a makeover inside and out. Small bathrooms, typical of hotels built in the 1920s, as the Westbury was, will be enlarged, and the hotel will lose 28 rooms in the process. Heating, air-conditioning, plumbing and elevators will be brought up to the latest standards, and rooms will receive multiline telephones, modems and fax machines. The hotel is expected to reopen in nine months to a year. Guests with reservations after Dec. 22 have already been rebooked at the Mark and the New York Palace, among others. Then, on Jan. 2, the Peninsula, a 242-room hotel at 700 Fifth Ave., at 55th Street, will shut down. It is scheduled to reopen Nov. 1, 1998, with such improvements as better lighting, desks with ergonomically improved chairs, fax machines, data ports and dual- line speaker telephones. The hotel will reassign any guests booked after Jan. 2, at the guest's request, in the New York Palace, St. Regis, Pierre, Mark, Plaza Athenee, Waldorf Towers or Park Lane hotels. In the meantime, regular guests can keep up their appearances: the Peninsula's 35,000-square-foot spa and fitness center will remain open. A cyber throne LOS ANGELES (NYT) -- For Elvis Presley fans who can't get enough of The King, a tiny Camarillo, Calif.-based software publisher has started selling the ultimate tour of the Elvis Graceland Estate. Total Multimedia, which plans to ship more than 20,000 copies, reported the two-CD set has posted brisk sales at CompUSA. The $29.95 set, Total Multimedia's first product, includes tours of 18 areas of Graceland, 350 stories about Elvis, performances and a complete listing of Presley movies and songs. "We felt that this was an opportunity that we should snatch right up," said David Elliot, vice president of Total Multimedia. Elliot, a former employee of Crunch Media, started working on Graceland research before joining Total Multimedia two years ago. Santa Monica-based Crunch is the producer of the CD set. Elliot said he was most impressed by Presley's generosity to others, as when he bought the Graceland cook a house near the mansion. "He had a genuine love of people and treated everyone equally," Elliot said. Divesting the mixes CINCINNATI (AP) -- Procter & Gamble sold its Duncan Hines line of baking mixes Monday, ending 41 years of ownership. The value of the deal with MBW Investors, of Columbus, Ohio, which owns Aurora Foods, was not disclosed. Aurora Foods owns Mrs. Butterworth's syrup and pancake mix and Log Cabin syrup. After acquiring Duncan Hines, Aurora will have annual sales of about $450 million. Duncan Hines was put up for sale in August after company officials said it did not fit into their strategy of building market-leading food and beverage brands. P&G management said it sees potential in juice, coffee, snacks and Olean, its new calorie-free, fat-free cooking oil. "It's not a critical business for them," said Brenda Lee Landry of Morgan Stanley in New York. "It hasn't been a focus for them in recent years. We're happy to see them getting out." P&G bought Duncan Hines from the Nebraska Consolidated Mills in 1956. Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble markets more than 300 brands of food, beverage, cosmetic, health and paper products. Some of its best-known brands are Tide, Crest, Folgers and Pampers. P&G's food and beverage sales have increased 25 percent during the past three fiscal years. With annual sales of some $250 million, Duncan Hines represented less than 10 percent of P&G's annual food and beverage sales. The company had 1996 sales of $35 billion, and Chairman and CEO John Pepper has told investors that he wants to double sales to $70 billion annually by 2006. Woolworth gets out NEW YORK (Bloomberg) -- Woolworth has sold its 27-store Mexican unit to closely held Control Dinamico. The sale of Woolworth Mexicana SA de CV completes the company's exit from its traditional F.W. Woolworth dime-store format in North America. Woolworth announced in July that it would close its unprofitable F.W. Woolworth chain, America's last major dime-store chain, and fire 9,200 workers. As with the closure of the stores in the United States, the sale of the Mexican chain will allow Woolworth to focus on its profitable athletic and specialty merchandise stores, including its Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker and Champs chains, the company said. Gambling woes increase NEW YORK (NYT) -- Compulsive gambling among adults increased sharply in the last two decades and was even higher among teen-agers as legalized casinos and lotteries proliferated across the United States and Canada, says a study by the Harvard Medical School financed by the gambling industry. In what experts have described as the most comprehensive analysis ever of compulsive gambling, researchers found that from 1994-97, 1.29 percent of adults in both countries had a gambling disorder, compared with 0.84 percent from 1977-93. The study, released by the school's division on addictions, also found that gambling addiction was far more prevalent among teen-agers than adults, with 3.88 percent of youths having had a gambling disorder at some time in the last 20 years. Further, the researchers found that people with alcohol and drug problems were more likely to also have a gambling problem. In adults receiving treatment for mental disorders or substance abuse in the last 20 years, 14.23 percent were also problem gamblers, the study said. The percentage of problem gamblers who are adolescents and substance abusers has remained steady over the past two decades.