NEWSPAPER
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Crain's
Barrow: 'Detroit needs young leader' PAGE 4 ~Computers
are key to manufacturing PAGE 22
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Boat-engine maker plans expansion PAGE 17
WEEK OF APRIL 29 - MAY 5,1985 VOLUME 1 0 NO. 13
Detroit printer asks state for debt help BY KATIE LANE-WILKE CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
MICHAEL E. SAMOJEDEN
The city of Novi is acting as its ow~ develope~ o~ plans to make the f~rmer Walled Lake Casino & Amusement Park Into a multimillion dollar resort. City Manager Edward Kriewall says project bids will be sought in May. Story, Page 3~
A Detroit company ranked last year as the second fastest growing firm in Michigan by Inc . magazine has applied to government agencies for a $900,00'0 loan package money that will be used partially to payoff more than $1.4 million in back taxes. Overexpansion without a strong financial base has put Renaissance Printing Inc. in a difficult financial position, according to company management. The company, which specializes in printing financial documents, owes more than $1.4 million in back taxes to the federal, state and local governments, and about $1.2 million to suppliers and vendors. A state committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday, May 1, to review the loan application.
States open bank borders BY CHARLES CHILD CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
Michigan and five neighboring states are moving fitfully to permit interstate banking in the Great Lakes region. If approved by state legislatures, the interstate compact could bring a rash of acquisitions and leave many areas with out-ofstate bank ownership. Indiana already allows interstate banking, and Michigan banks hope the state moves fast enough that they can swallow out-of-state banks before those banks grow big enough to take . over Michigan banks. In the coming great banking shake-out, analysts believe the early bird will g~t the worm: Large banks whose states permit expansion first will get a head start over competitors elsewhere in the region.
Wrestling fans have hot line BY TOM FERGUSON Special to CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
If P.T. Barnum were living in the high-tech age, he might install a 900 phone number that rubes, for 50 cents, could dial to hear the elephant talk. Of course, he would have to consider that the rube already may have spent his half buck to dial the latest pro wrestling results. Actually, results are only an occasional thing on the World Wrestling Federation Action Line. Most of the fi ve daily messages are the "Your mother wears combat boots" kind of rhetoric. One day last week, for example, your 50-cent minute got you Classy Freddie Blessie, old-time wrestler and current manager, delivering this diatribe
about Captain Lou Albano, old-time wrestler and current manager: "I know for a fact, when he was little, his folks used to leave his baby carriage parked on a hill in neutral, hoping it would go downhill. And down at the bottom of the hill, they were blasting for a new highway." Kurt Schneider, operations manager for Phone Programs of Michigan Inc., won't say exactly how many calls the wrestling line has gotten since it was launched Jan. 3. But he said it amounted to "thousands of calls a day," enough to put Classy Freddie and his pals "about in the middle" of popularity among the company's 15 toll-call programs - ahead of Children's Story Line No.3 but far below the best-sellers, Lottery Line and a weather service.
Schneider said that when WrestleMania filled Cobo Arena on March 31 for a closed-circuit TV card of nine matches from Madison Square Garden, calls to the wrestling line "just about matched the Cobo attendance." Phone Programs, whose parent company is in New York City, operates Sportsphone, which occasionally promotes the wrestling number. But most of its traffic has been generated by commercials on a Channel 50 wrestling program seen on Sunday mornings, Schneider said. Remember, 1-976-6363 is the one and only place you can call to find out that, when Lou Albano "was in Little League, he was the only kid I know who was traded to a different family." CDB
See PRINTER, PAGE 26
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"Indiana has legislation, and let's assume Ohio is next," said Donald Heikkinen, senior vice president of the Michigan Bankers Association, a trade group. "Banks in those states could get big first. If this happens, it would be very important for Michigan to be there right away." He said the stakes in the shake-out are high, for both the banks and their states: "We'd like to see the headquarters of the survivors in Michigan. It would be a big shot in the arm for the economy." A Chicago-based bank analyst sees a domino effect growing as states follow Indiana's lead. "Ohio will probably be next," said John Snow, vice president of The Chicago Corp., an investment banking firm. "If Michigan's Gov. (James) Blanchard signs a bill, that will put See BANKS, PAGE 26
Renaissance Printing launched sales offices in several U.s. cities in the early 1980s and prospered during the bullish stock market of early 1983, when companies selling stock needed its services. The period of prosperity qualified Renaissance Printing for the 70th spot last year on Boston-based Inc. magazine's list of the fastest-growing 500 privately held companies. What started as a local printing shop had grown to a firm with sales offices throughout the nation that specialized in printing prospectuses for tax-exempt bonds and public stock offerings. But Renaissance Printing fell on hard times when the market turned to the bears and the financial printing industry became tight last year. The company lost $745,086 in
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BOBBENYAS
Leslie Lucey, sales manager, at Sears' food delivery service. in Inkster.
Sears tests food delivery BY KATHY
JACK~ON
CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINE~S
Detroit has been designated as a test market by Sears, Roebuck & Co. for a new service that would deliver a wide variety offrozen perishable foods to the door steps of customers, who could put the purchases on their Sears' credit cards. If the service provided by Sears Authorized Home Food Service in Inkster is successful, the nation's largest retailer may offer it throughout the country, according to company officials. Sears Authorized Home Food Service is housed at 26800 Michigan Ave., which was Riverside Freezer Food Service until last August. Riverside was bought out by American Frozen Foods Inc. in Stratford, Conn. which owns the Sears' frozen food concession. Sea~s signed a one-year contract with American Frozen Foods to provide the service to Detroit under the Sears name. American Frozen Foods, with sales See SEARS, PAGE 27
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