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Sterling Hts. mall offers new concept
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In Detroit, a jitney is not a bus
PAGE 18 Health care ads escalate
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WEEK OF APRIL 1 - 7,1985 VOLUME 1 0 NO.9
Burroughs takes aim at IBM
Insurance company cuts 110 local jobs
BY BRADFORD WERNLE CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
BY LAUNZY SIMS Special to CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS
The Los Angeles-based Transamerica Insurance Group is eliminating 110 jobs at its Southfield office Monday, April 1, as part of a national reorganization plan that will make Battle Creek one of only two regional offices. Transamerica Insurance - the subsidiary of San Francisco-based Transamerica Corp. that writes group insurance policies - will trim 500 employees from its national work force of 4,500, said personnel manager Anthony Carlton. The Detroit area was particularly hard hit because Battle See INSURANCE, PAGE 21
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Tigers strike out in ad biz BY LARRY PALADINO Special to CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS BRADFORD WERNLE
Hoping to silence doubters and lay to rest its reputation as a stodgy laggard in the mainframe computer race with IBM, Detroit's Burroughs Corp. staged an elaborate press conference in New York last week to unveil what company officials believe is their most important new product in 20 years. The introduction of the very largescale A 15 mainframe, which will be ready for delivery almost a year before IBM's competing Sierra (3090) series, was timed to coincide with Burroughs' 100th anniversary and is one of the fruits of Chairman W. Michael Blumenthal's four-year restructuring of the company. Since Blumenthal became chief executive officer in 1980 and Paul Stern became president in 1981, they have gone through the company from top to bottom, restructuring management, targeting specific markets, training employees, cutting production costs, upgrading research and development, and launching new products. Burroughs intends to aggressively seek new customers for its new machines, not just traditional Burroughs customers. If the company succeeds, analysts see Burroughs moving to the head of "The Bunch" - the second tier computer companies chasing International Business Machines. Data processing and financial analysts believe the new Burroughs computers put the company in a much better shape technically, relative to IBM's offerings. While the Burroughs machines may not be better, they are at least on par. IBM officials said it is company policy not to talk about competitors. Burroughs recorded 1984 sales of $4.8 billion, compared to IBM's $45.9 billion. At the press conference, Blumenthal
Detroit Tiger pitcher Dan Petry is "still waiting for 7-Up to ap- Burroughs Chairman W. Michael Blumenthal at last proach me to do a 'Feel'n 7-Up' week's New York press conference on A 15 mainframe computer. commercial." "I just like 'em," Petry said from the Tigers' spring training camp in Lakeland, Fla . "I like the commercial, and I like the way they do it." Unfortunately for Petry, the 7mail fraud, wire fraud, bankruptcy BY BOB WILLIAMS Up dream is '~ust CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS fraud, extortion and securities kind of my little fraud in order to cause the Chapter joke, my little WASHINGTON - Since 1982, 11 bankruptcies. goal about doing five different trucking companies The company denies responsibilsomething." ity for most of the bankruptcies. have petitioned for bankruptcy Like most of the Ron Lack, executive vice presisoon after being acquired by a Anderson world champion Sterling Heights trucking com- dent of Centra, said the bankrupt Detroit Tigers, Petry said he companies "have more union empany. hasn't had any requests to be in ployees than before we took over, That pattern prompted a suit commercials. He does expect to do last week from the Teamsters and most of them are now making some public service announce- Union, charging that Centra Inc. money. What's wrong with that?" ments for ~ the Michigan State Po- forced the unionized trucking comLack said Centra "only caused lice. one of the companies they are talkpanies it acquired to file petitions "As everybody says, it's basically for bankruptcy in order to void exing about to petition for Chicago, New York and Los An- isting labor pacts with the union. bankruptcy. I haven't seen the geles that get the limelight," said lawsuit yet, but I would say that it In the class action suit filed in Petry . "We're just a Midwestern is getting close to contract time. U. S. District Court for Michigan, the Teamsters charged that Centra See TRUCKING, PAGE 22 ~ See TIGERS, PAGE 21 ~ and its subsidiaries engaged in
emphasized the importance of the latest new product announcement in conjunction with the company's 100th anniversary. He said the centennial "says something about our staying power" in an industry where "there are a lot of companies which haven't been around for more than 10 years and seem to disappear like shooting stars which rise upon the firmament and disappear as quickly as they have arisen." The company also introduced its new medium- to large-scale V series and gave a sneak preview of its new logo, which will be officially unveiled this Wednesday at the company's annual meeting as part of a new "corporate identity program." Burroughs' top brass, including Blumenthal, Stern and Hollis Caswell, president of the company's Systems Products Group, were on hand to explain what the products mean to the company. "Our large system represents the culmination of an effort not only to restructure the company," said Blumenthal, "but reemphasizes the benefits that can flow from the basic Burroughs architecture." "Over the years, I've read questions about whether Burroughs is commited to the mainframe market," he said. "I would expect that with the introduction of the A 15, that question will no longer be raised." Mainframes are the largest, most powerful computers used by big companies to process and store huge quantities of information. The A 15 has 2.5 times the computing power of the B7900, Burroughs' existing top end mainframe. The A 15 system will permit users of Burroughs' A Series models to upgrade processing capabilities up to 70 times See BURROUGHS, PAGE 21
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Teamsters, trucking company battle over five bankruptcies
DWIGHT CENDROWSKI
Mohawk Llquers Corp. CEO Duane Maas (left) and Technical Director Steven Gird pour the firm's new peach schnapps, one of local distillers' numerous entries into the growing - and lucrative"cordial competition." Story, Page 3.