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Senior housing is in demand
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PAGE 7 ~Fudge
biz goes show biz PAGE 26
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Residential real estate: A special report PAGE 13
WEEK OF DEC. 2 - 8,1985 VOLUME 1 0 NO. 44
East-side site set for firlD's three plants
Frito strike puts rivals in the chips BY AMY BODWIN CRA IN'S DETROIT B::-cU-,-:S::.IN .::.- E.,...,S..". S- - - - -
Christmas has come early for Detroit snack maker Cross & Peters Co. - better known as the maker of Better Made Potato Chips. A six-week-old Teamsters strike against Frito-Lay Inc .'s eight warehouses in southeastern Michigan has meant a 15 percent to 20 percent sales increase for the company's six varieties of potato chips and other snacks including corn chips and cheese curls. The strike against Frito-Lay, which according to Better Made had 51 percent of the local chip market, has increased the sales of several competitors. "We are having difficulties keeping it (product) on the racks, there 's no doubt about it," said Russ Leone, sales manager at Better Made . The company has hired about 30 people and added a second eighthour shift to handle the increased demand. Better Made, which now See CHIPS, PAGE 29
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BY MICHAEL MCBRIDE Speci al to CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
GLENN TRIEST
Better Made Potato Ch ips plant manager Phil Amigoni watches chips roll down the line.
• Viking Brake Co., which manufactures brake pads and linings; • Viking Electronics Co., which manufactures airplane antennas and navigational equipment and installs computer chips in micro computers; • Viking Trading Co., Viking's import-export arm; • Viking Bus Co. , which plans to begin converting motor hom es made by Vixen Motor Co . of Pontiac into mini-buses for use as passenger shuttles at airports; • Viking Fiber Co., which will manufacture Inorphil, an asbestos See VIKING, PAGE 30
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C&T aims to soften next downturn
LATE NEWS
BY JANE WHITE
Metro Airport director named
CRAIN'S DETROIT B USINESS
A new director of aviation has been named for Detroit Metropolitan Airport, pending approval of the Wayne County Commission Thursday. Richard Jamieson of Dallas, a former vice president of American Airlines, would immediately fill the airport director's post, which has been vacant since Timothy Ward departed in early October, according to James Meyers, assistant Wayne County executive. The appointment must be approved by the Commission's Public Service Committee and then the full Commission Thursday. Jamieson is currently president of Richard Jamieson and Associates, an airport management firm. Jamieson's contract, if approved, would run through 1986.
Retail chain to open Conston Inc., the Philadelphia-based clothing retailer that this year opened a dozen 16 Plus stores in Detroit, will introduce its newest clothing chain here in early 1986. See LATE NEWS, PAGE 2
A year-old Detroit company will break ground this month on a $16.6 million manufacturing complex on the city's east side . Viking International plans to open part of the three-building complex next June, and employment is expected to reach about 420 when the project is completed, said Edward J. Robinson, principal partner and spokesman for the group. The 15-acre riverfront site at St. Jean and Freud once was sought by John DeLorean for his now-bankrupt automobile assembly company, and later by a group of investors backed by retired boxer Muhammad Ali that planned to build a soda pop bottling plant. Viking plans to build three 60,OOO-square-foot buildings to house five manufacturing and service
subsidiaries, Robinson said. Viking is a holding company formed earlier this year by a group of Detroitarea investors and a Virginiabased electronics firm, Elmer Lipsey Associates. The five subsidiaries are:
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Cross & Trecker Corp. of Bloomfield Hills has created a subsidiary to offer technical help to manufacturers. The machine tool maker hopes the subsidiary will protect its revenues and employees from future recession. The subsidiary, C&T Technical Services Corp ., "should be larger than the present Cross & Trecker within seven or eight years," said company President Richard Lindgren. The nation's largest machine tool maker, Cross & Trecker reported sales of $423 million in 1985. The technical services market "is fantastic. It's really very sizeable," Lindgren said. C&T professionals will fill temporary staffing gaps for its clients. In addition, the subsidiary is designed to protect Cross & Trecker itself from employee bloodbaths the next time a recession hits the ravaged machine tool sector. "I'll take these people and put them in another company that is in a different cycle," Lindgren said. Lindgren is intimately familiar with what business cycles can do a company's employees. "We had 4 ,600 people on the payroll in September 1981; it was down to 3,000 in '83 ," he said . Sales dropped precipitously
from $381 million in 1982 to $150 million in 1983. Cross & Trecker now employs 4,500 people, up from 4,400 in 1984. Ronald Laubert, recently named president of C&T Technical Services, said the subsidiary will employ up to 400 new people within three years. "We're going to begin recruiting activities in mid-December," said Laubert,who had been marketing manager for Multiple Technologies Corp . of Southfield, a data processing contract firm. "We will provide on-site contract services in design, project engineering, manufacturing engineering," Laubert said. "And we're studying the feasibility of providing off-site design and CAD (computer-aided design). We're also looking into factory automation services." The subsidiary is expected to be in business by the first quarter of 1986, Laubert said. Laubert said he couldn't predict how many people he would hire initially. Clients could range from the Big Three auto companies to the aerospace industry. Like engineers and draftspeople who work for job shops that provide short-term assistance to an auto company , C&T's staffers could work on a project from "three weeks to three months to three years," Laubert said. Lindgren said, "This will enable our clients to better manage their peak loads, so they
CROSS & TRECKER lET EARlII6S 1981-1985, in millions of doliars 45
41.2 38.7
40 35
30 25
20 15
10
5
1981
1982
3:-.
1~
1983
1985
1984
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SAHOAA SCH.Jl TZ
don't have to train and layoff." Laubert acknowledged that C&T has plenty of competitors who offer at least some of the services C&T will. "There must be 300 miscellaneous jobs shops ranging from five people to 2,000 they come and go," Laubert said. "But there's no one in the manufacturing area like Cross & Trecker that's getting into this, that has the staying power in the industry." C&T will initially be based in the parent company's headquarters at 505 N. Woodward Ave. Later, it will lease space in another city, probably Troy, Laubert said. See CROSS, PAGE 30
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