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Chambers family means business Downriver
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PAGE 26
Special section: Pontiac seeks rebirth PAGE 12
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Detroit bucks trend, prefers new Coke PAGE 7
WEEK OF OCT. 14 - 20,1985 VOLUME 1 0 NO. 37
Detroit companies study Japanese BY HARRIET NOLAN Specia l to CRA IN'S DETR OIT BUSINESS
Don't tell geisha girl jokes. But do have your business card printed in English and Japanese, including your middle initial. Don't necessarily interpret a nod as a "yes" - it may only be a signal of understanding. But do be aware that the Japanese probably know more about you and your company than you do about them. Seem simple enough? Well , it isn't . As Japanese business becomes more prominent in the Detroit area, local companies are discovering that the nuances of dealing with the Japanese must be given just as much attention as the figures on the bottom line. Edward Sambuchi is general manager and vice president of Great Lakes Steel, a division of National Steel. In August 1984, Nippon Kokan K.K. bought half the company, and Sambuchi found himself with a Japanese boss and four full-time Japanese employees. One style difference is that "we present information in one
form for our management decision process, and they like to see it in different form," Sambuchi says. "American partners like to see numerical information for the last six months, while the Japanese like to see graphs. We're trying to do both without duplicating." Blending East with West is all in a day's work for Sambuchi. While he invites visitors to "something typically American," like having lunch at his home after a round of golf, he knows that same courtesy extended in Japan would be held at a restaurant or club. Americans dealing with Japanese need to know some things about the Japanese culture. A joke, for example, that refers to geishas as prostitutes rather than dancers would tip the Japanese off that these particular Americans "lack knowledge of their culture," says Glenn Mazur, president of Japanese Business Consultants Ltd. Mazur's year-old, Ann Arbor-based firm helps American and Japanese companies do business together by offering consulting See JAPANESE, PAGE 29
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Tire sales up; profits go flat
Grant will quit downtown site
BY KATHY JACKSON
CRAiN'S DETROIT B USINESS
CRAiN'S DETROIT B USINESS
Alexander Grant & Co., metro Detroit's 10th largest accounting firm , will move its headquarters from downtown Detroit to Southfield in December or January, a company spokesperson said. The site of the new headquarters, the First Center Office Plaza on Northwestern Highway , was chosen in part as an image-builder for the company, said Jane Kallie, marketing coordinator in Detroit. The move will consolidate all of Alexander Grant's Detroit-area employees under one roof. The company's 70 employees now working in the downtown Penobscot Building will join 50 Alexander Grant employees from the Prudential Town Center complex in Southfield and a building in Bingham Farms. The office's managing partner, Harold Dubrowsky, works out of the Penobscot Building. "With three offices, it's horrendous passing reports from one part-
BY CHARLES CHILD
Brutal competition has reduced tire prices in the Detroit area. And while sales are up among large local tire wholesalers and retailers, profits have sprung a slow leak. For the fiscal year which ended Sept. 30, Belle Tire Distributors Inc. of Allen Park, which operates eight stores in Detroit, had net sales of $35 million, up 20 percent over 1984, but net profits dropped 3-4 percent, said Vice President John Babinski. The company hopes to turn that decline around by capitalizing on foreign tires, which have increased in U.S. market share from less than 5 percent in 1980 to about 20 percent today. Belle isn't alone in its battle. Independent tire dealers - companies not run by a tire manufacturer - are besieged on three fronts: • Prices have dropped from 10 percent to 15 percent in two years. • Auto repair business at independents' garages is down because of longer automobile warranties. • Tire manufacturers, whose profits have also been down the past five years or so, are aggressively horning in on sales to some large customers that formerly were customers of the independents. A survey conducted for the Michigan Retailers Association (MRA) last month showed that tire dealers and retreaders suffered a 16.8 percent decline in sales in August. Sales for the year are down 3.3 percent. While the MRA views those declines See TIRES, PAGE 30
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ner to another," she said. "If you want a face-to-face meeting, it's an hour in the car there and back." The consolidation will eliminate duplicate filing systems, copying machines and other costs, she said. She said the Penobscot and Buhl buildings in downtown Detroit were among five finalists for the consolidated headquarters. But First Center could accommodate all 120 employees on one floor, Kallie said , and the Southfield building was considered good for the company's image. She said Alexander Grant judged how each site would affect its image as the most important factor in the search. The firm will occupy 27,000 square feet in First Center. The 70 employees downtown, she said, are "jammed" into 14,000 square feet on one floor of the Penobscot. The move to First Center depends on how quickly the office space can be remodeled. "Our target date is the first two weeks of December," Kallie said. COB
Super Valu scouts store sites BY AMY BODWIN
-CRAlN'S DETROIT BUS IN ES S GLENN TRIEST
Duane Rao, vice president of Rao Wholesale Tire, says heavy advertising budgets, needed to compete with tire companies' own stores, and diversification have helped his firm survive. Other independent tire distributors and retailers say they have been forced to cut prices - and profits - in intense local competition.
Super Valu Stores Inc., the nation's largest food wholesaler, is surveying the Detroit area for possible sites for its Cub superwarehouse food stores, according to sources in the real estate and food industries here. Super Valu, based in the Minne-
apolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minn ., denies it plans to open Cub stores in the highly competitive Detroit market. "Our real estate people look in several states," said Maureen Hooley, director of advertising for Cub. "We're always looking at markets." See SITES, PAGE 30
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