The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 31

the aNciNNATi enquirer Aeronca: 'Broke', Now Booming Handschumacher has vowed to BIISiiSTilEITS -s People And Money At Work Sunday, February 25, 1968 jv. i i II i hi II tip After Hours' Sessions Businessmen Spending More Time Reading About 'Business" stress commercial business because, he notes, "it's generally twice as profitable as government contract projects." "By 1970," he said, "we hope to have 70 commercial business and only 30 government. The current ratio is about 60-40." Commercial projects take more financing, but this seems to no longer be a barrier with Aeronca showing profits. Handschumacher arranged a $5 million revolving credit with, five major banks. Decision to move headquarters to the plant in Torrance was prompted by desire to be nearer the hub of West Coast aerospace business.

Like other able executives, Handschumacher has been able to surround himself with "can-do" division heads, Including two he refuses to admit "stealing" from Lear-Siegler. "I negotiated for their departure to us," he said of Donald M. Mc-Grath, vice president and general manager of the Torrance Aerocal division and Roy J. Benecchi, president of the Aerospace group. Ted Carman, a former Avco Corp.

executive, also came to head Aeronca's Middletown division. IN ADDITION to wing and fuselage sections for all Boeing airliners, the firm produces environmental control systems, such as for hospitals, tobacco and textile plants; hl-temp stainless steel structural panels for the Apollo command module; fiberglass igloos for air freight shipping, and parts for Jet fighters and helicopters used In Vietnam. The environmental controls section, under the Buensod-Stacey subsidiary in New York, recently received a $3.8 million contract for air conditioning at the new West-inghouse Electric Corp, nuclear turbine plant in Charlotte, N. c. Much of Aeronca's work takes special knowledge in bonded materials and exotic metals, such as titanium which will be used for the skin of the Boeing supersonic Ailing Aeronca Revitalized Alfred G.

Handschumacher, president, checks wing rib being built for Boeing 747 airliner that will carry 350 passengers.1; BY JERRY McLAIN Copley News Service Alfred A. Handschumacher, president of Aeronca gives a simple answer to what could have been an opening to blow his own horn. Why did he stake his business reputation on taking over a pioneer but ailing company like Aeronca? The 49-year-old executive, former president of the highly successful Lear-Siegler could have said in retrospect that he had been looking for a big challenge, a chance to doubly prove his management prowess, etc. Not this man, however. "Frankly, I didn't know things were that bad with the company," he said of his decision to leave Lear-Siegler for Aeronca.

But bad they were. The same year Handschumacher took over as Aeronca's president and board chairman the company suffered a $3.08 million loss, when a small profit had been forecast. The firm owed one dollar for every dollar of company assets and couldn't get any more loans from commercial banks. "We were all operating with a stone around our necks," Handschumacher said, adding: "We were bankrupt." Aeronca, which recently moved its headquarters from Middletown, Ohio, to Los Angeles, has a history almost as old as civilian aviation. It was the first airplane manufacturer to mass produce single-engine light aircraft for pleasure pilots, the C-3, "flying bathtub," in 1928.

By 1965, however, the company had grown erratically, becoming heavily dependent on government contracts, and had all but eliminated connections with production of light planes. THE STRAW that almost broke the camel's back came when Aeronca bid on a large government pact to build several huge parabolic space-tracking antennas. The firm really didn't have the capability to do this particular work, Handschumacher explained. "We found that 90 of the allotted funds had been spent and the Job was only 10 completed," he said. Faced with this desperate situation, Handschmuacher went to the Federal government and was able to persuade Uncle Sam to give an unsecured loan on favorable terms.

Since then, the story is one of sharp turnaround. After writing off the 1965 losses, the start of a drastic rehabilitation program, the firm showed a $1.09 million profit in 1966 on $48 million in sales and expects $1.4 million in black-ink figures for 1967. Further gains will be made this year, Handschumacher said. Correspondingly, company shareholders have also done well of late. Aeronca common stock rose from $6 to $25 a share this year.

Holders of preferred issues, on which dividends were several years in arrears, were able to trade them in for common stock on profitable terms. From a firm that started out building light planes, Aeronca is now a major subcontractor building sections of huge commercial airliners for Boeing and course, they have the know-how and can control their own costs. Handschumacher, whose German derivation name means "show-maker," is the father of seven children. He admits liking to sleep late in the morning, though not often getting this chance. "You've heard of people being at their peak in the morning," he said.

"I do my best work between 3 p. m. and midnight every day." As If he didn't have enough to do heading a corporation, the Handschumacher family includes one girl, three years old and other children ranging to 26. His wife, Bjorna, is a former British actress. NEW YORK (UPI) Busi-t nessmen generally do not care to talk shop after they leave their offices but they are spending more time on their own in reading about i business.

This does not include the time they spend reading financial features in magazines or such dally business newspapers as the Journal i of Commerce and the Wall Street 'Journal, which is almost part of their Job. i Increased reader interest is being shown in books about business published by Prentice-Hall, McGraw, MacMillan, Farnsworth and Dart-nell, among others. Farnsworth Publishing Co. of Lynbrook, N.Y., recently conducted a poll of many executives in various industries, around the nation as re-gards their reading habits. 4 The Farnsworth survey Indicated the average American business executive spends three hours a week reading hard-cover business books, more time than ever before.

Only 10 years or so ago, businessmen were spending only about an hour a week on hard-cover financial books. Lee Rosier, president of Farnsworth, said these executives are reading business books In their leisure time because they want to be Buying Losers Is Hardly Selective Hi, Norm, What's Netv? Check Casher Has 6Cutie' By ELIOT JANEWAY Q. I am able to save about $500 a month, and for two years now have been buying depressed Issues for the long term on the New York Stock exchange. Would I be better off to conserve my cash for a better buying time or to keep on buying on the way down? A. An investment program based on buying depressed Issues on the New York Stock Exchange can't have been very selective! If you don't want to run out of cash faster than you can say "Dow Jones," you will let that monthly savings accumulation of yours build up until the present storm has run its course.

Amateurish Advice My wife and I are considering retiring in about two years. Our life savings Is Invested in four good mutual funds, and over the last five years our original Investment has doubled. We have recently heard from certain quarters that we should Page 9-E knowledgeable about changes In industrial techniques. He also noted that publishers are eager to produce books that are easy to read. i "The business book publisher Is getting away from the dry and flaccid textbook type of tomes," Rosier said.

"They are assigning writers to various business subjects who combine scholarship, good knowledge of the field and real writing ability. And businessmen are responding." Farnsworth's survey disclosed that the heaviest off-time reading of business books occurs among executives involved in computers and data processing. They average about five hours a week. "Also, these executives read about a wide variety of Industries, obviously influenced by the fact they believe many industries can benefit from computer use," Rosier said. "They want to know more about other businesses." The Farnsworth poll also determined that Insurance executives spend more than four hours a week on business books; Rosier said their interest perhaps grows from the abundance of books available on the Insurance industry.

i "Just educating Insurance agents is a big effort as there are about 400,000 of them," he said. Easy Living bad checks net $5000 in two months. checks that have bounced, keeping their losses quiet from the public and especially from stockholders. In addition, it takes time for a check to be returned. And many in- stitutions are afraid their tellers won't make a positive identification.

If tihe trickster can't be positively identified and if there is little other evidence, there is always tihe possibility of a suit for false arrest. For these reasons, financial institutions, stores and service companies which accept checks from customers often fail to report law violations to the police. And, once again, the thief gets richer while, in the long run, the public pays the bilL A list of checks reported stolen during past week is on Page 10-E. Jit X. Big Market: 'Big Spenders' Handschumacher says there's been an increasing tendency of the major companies, Lookheed, Boeing and McDonnell-Douglas, to subcontract more structural subassemblies.

The Boeing 747, a mammoth airliner to haul 350 passengers, for example, is being built almost entirely by subcontractors and then will be pieced together by Boeing at Its Seattle facility. "The big manufacturers that have been imminently successful have done this because it doesn't cost them as much," the Aeronca. president pointed out. Meanwhile, it spells a better future for subcontractors and a better chance to get chunks of commercial projects, provided, of trt.V.VV.V.VWAV.ftV.VAVMV.VAWAV.VM Janeway Advises switch some of our money into mining stocks as a hedge against inflation. What is your advice? Your letter Indicates that the people you have been gossiping with are as amateurish as you know you are.

You were wise in the first place to put your money In the hands of professional Investment advisers and the record shows that they have done better for yqu during a period when selectivity was at a premium than you had very much chance of doing for yourself. As it happens, the managements of the funds you own were making systematic preparations for the present trouble In the stock and money markets by liquidating investments and building cash while speculative enthusiasm was still running high. Specifically, the loose talk you In Just three years, sales have climbed to the $500,000 plus mark and the firm has grown from a one man operation to a staff of 12 persons, plus four part-time employees. With headlines like "Four Day Week For Workers" "Leisure Time Explosion To Hit Middle Class," Patterson hopefully isn't looking forward to too much leisure of his own. Last month, PIC signed a lease for some 4000 square feet in the Alms Hotel.

It's for 20 years. BY PEGGY LANE Of The Enquirer Staff It's almost always surprising to know just how easy it is to cash Lbad checks, especially when the checks are passed by an expert, It's equally surprising when you i hear how easily the so-called "expert" makes a living. One young man, arrested by the check squad of the Cincinnati Police Division, is estimated to' have made i. at least $5000 in only two months. And, for part of that time, he was in Jail.

This young, neatly dressed, man used one good story where ever he went. And he had Just one gim-rmick to throw bank and building and loan tellers off guard. He would walk up to a teller, call I the teller by her first name and act vvMqii kHi nuu U. 1U1UVV linn, oaxu uctcuuvca iviai vui ICVI- linan and Bob Wiesenhahn. Auvaitauijr tuc bcucr wuuiu ue UI1- willing to admit that she didn't rec- 41.

1 1.1 1 ugmze mis young man. This clever young check casher had one more ace going for him. He would tell the teller that he was go-ing to Vietnam and wanted to pay all his bills first. Then he would hand over a check, ranging up to $500, and ask for several money orders. Naturally, his checks always bounced.

But, before that point was' reached, tihe larcenist would have cashed the money orders and made a nice little haul He was arrested recently by a suburban police department after detectives Friedman and Wiesenhahn saw a police teletype describing a similar larceny in the suburbs. They recognized the man's method of operation because he had recent- ly been indicted in Cincinnati and was out on bond, awaiting trial for four similar offenses, There Is no way of really knowing how much money this man really got away with, police say. Far too often, banks and savings nnrt 1vin VMimnnlM fall tr rorvrrh have been hearing Is amateurish on two accounts one general, the other specific. The cliche about a hedge against inflation is really at best shorthand and at worst a half-truth. It would be more accurate to speak of the need for a hedge against the inflation of costs" and the deflation of profits.

Specifically, many groups of mining securities are visibly sharing in the vulnerability of the market as a wholet The recommendation you've heard Is really aimed at the gold stocks. But unless and until the price of gold goes up sharply and stays up firmly the gold mining company stocks far from offering an inflEttion hedge will continue to be conspicuous victims of the deflation of earnings. If sophistication is- at a premium in the selective pricing and timing of speculation in any group of stocks, it is even more so where gold stocks are concerned. The market prices of most of them have already anticipated very much bigger increases in the price of gold than are in prospect or than are likely to be held once registered. The professional management which did well for you in growth stocks when' they were the fashion is likely to do bet- ter than the public if the gold stocks have their day.

It's well to remember that "gold stock play, by contrast with investment in growth values, Is a quickie play when it comes. This means that there is as much premium on knowing when to get out as on when ijo get in. Insurance Board Offers Prograni To High Schools Two programs designed to assist Cincinnati area high school students in pursuing career opportunities in the property and liability insurance industry were announced by the Cincinnati Insurace Board. In cooperation with the Insurance Information Institute, the CIB will sponsor a pilot program at Mc-Nicholas High School, beginning March 8, which will present a series of six one-hour classsroom programs, said George C. Brown, CIB president.

"The lessons will be conducted week- -ly and will cover insurance from the standpoint of career, possibilities for the senior students and from the standpoint of practical family needs. "This is just the beginning," Brown added. "In the fall, this program will be offered to all high schools In the Greater Cincinnati area on a reservation basis." The CIB also offered to all area high schools the opportunity to send one senior girl, free of charge, to a five-evening course in the fundamentals of property and liability insurance. The classes will be held during the first two weeks of May and will not conflict with school work, according to CIB. "Your chosen student will have the opportunity, without obligation, to learn the fundamentals of the insurance business and in all probability be considered for employment by one of our agencies or associated companies." Brown said high school representatives should consider this scholarship opportunity and recommend their selections as as possible.

He added that representatives of the CIB are available to discuss this program at length with interested teachers, guidance counselors, students and parents. leli 1 BY RALPH WEISKITTEL Enquirer Business Editor Cincinnati businessman Larry Patterson Jr. has built himself a thriving business in just three years. And he concentrates solely on the "big-time Patterson International headquartered in the Alms Hotel, distributes a complete line of leisure time and recreational products which appeal to the public's growing amount of free time. In addition to providing leisure time activities, PIC has also capitalized on the public's increased spare time in another way.

The majority of equipment is sold to individuals who work on part-time basis at placing coin-operated machines in establishments where they can be played by the public. The revenue from the game is shared. Most popular of Patterson's games Is Football Match, a floor-model version of soccer, football or ice hockey, which can be operated on a coin or noncoin basis. Other equipment to attract the leisure-time market includes a table tennis game; a table top machine to test for "steadiness of your hand;" a postcard vending machine, and one aimed at the teen-age market, a vending machine for 45 rpm records. There's also a more elaborate version of Foosball for use in the home.

With the average working man looking forward to more leisure time, Patterson also is looking forward to adding more "games" to PIC's Inventory. "We're looking at several things now," he said. "One is an automatic soft-ice cream vending machine. It will be the first of its kind. Another is a coin-operated machine that will dispense a flavored Icy slush and we're also looking at a device that will utilize that seven seconds of silence between record plays on the juke box.

It's a strip of advertising slogans." The doubling up using part-time help has enabled the Cincinnati firm in the past year to establish more than 400 dealers throughout the country. Coin-operated equipment, Patterson explains, has another attraction. As soon as a unit is installed, the servicing and collection becomes almost routine. The owner's time is Enquirer Stock Guide, $1 I What did the stock market do last year, what will It probably do in 1968? Two good questions. And the answers will be In this year's edition i of The Enquirer Stock Guide.

The guide Is compiled by the Standard Poor's Corp. and contains vital investment facts on more than 4750 i common and preferred stocks listed on the major exchanges and more than 1800 issues from the over-the-counter market. To obtain your copy of this year's Enquirer Stock Guide use the accompanying order form. Order Form Please send me copies (at $1 each) of The Enquirer Stock i Guide for 1967. Please make checks or money orders payable to Standard Poor's Corp.

Spare-Time Means More Business Larry Patterson Jr. aims for leisure-time and recreational markets. NAME ADDRESS CITY not involved in operating a piece of equipment. Another use for the coin-operated products has been in fund raising programs by clubs, schools and other organizations, Patterson said. Many companies also provide the units for employee recreational activities.

This wide and varied market, and a rather unique combination of leisure-time fun, leisure-time income and coin-operated convenience has worked well for Patterson. Mail To: The Enquirer Stock Guide The Cincinnati Enquirer 617 Vine St. Cincinnati, Ohio 45201.